Well, I'm really annoyed to ask this but I need some help. My computer has serious issues since friday, I tried a lot of things but I'm finally giving up and I think there are good chances I'll go see a pro tomorrow to ask for his help, but... my funds are very limited, and I thought I should maybe ask here just in case anyone could have a solution or an idea.

I'm not very good in computer things. I know some things but it's pretty limited. I did my best, but I know I certainly screwed some things in addition to the original issue :(

My comp' is a second hand comp', it runs under Windows 7 64bits and is a Packard Bell ixtreme M5850.
I have Kaspersky Internet Security, it was up to date and active.
There is one harddrive, with two partitions : "C:\" with windows on it, and "D:\" with ALL MY DATAS (spoiler : I would really like to save them)(believe it or not, it was planned to save them the day after... with a new little hardrive which arrived just after the beginning of the issue. Irony.).

So the chaotic story "summarized".
Friday, my comp started to lag. A lot. Very soon my disk usage went to 100%, always, without any process using it really. I managed to take a screenshot while I still could.
I stopped several windows services and tried some other things (I lost a lot of hours due to slowness).
But the problem was that everything was so slow I couldn't do anything anymore.
I still tried to use adwcleaner : it found h@tkeysh@@k.dll and something named "Trymedia", I deleted everything.
I tried a malwarebyte : it was stuck at the biggest part of the scan, but didn't found anything for all the first steps.
I tried to use a Ubuntu live dvd, it didn't worked (it gives me something a bit like this).
I managed to install the WD Lifeguard Diagnostic software with a quick scan : health of disc was at "Warning".
I tried a chkdsk command, and a sfc scannow thanks to some threads on the web. The chkdsk was awful : it found some corrupted files and at the beginning of 4th step... my harddrive did a very bad sound. I did a hard reset. I encountered an issue with BCD that I had to repair. I tried to do a windows repair with a "repair cd" : it doesn't even find Windows ! I used the dos command : partitions are here.
I fixed the mbr (I encountered several issues but can't remember all). I followed , it solved it thanks to [url=https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html]this additional part. Because I have an EFI (I don't know what it is but I understood it was one of the things which complicated my situation : certainly preventing the use of a live dvd of ubuntu for example). I'm not sure I sorted things perfectly, but comp' was booting again on windows.
But still very (VERY) slowly (imagine 20 to 40 minutes to simply startup) : so back to 1st situation. I began to back-up some things. Copying wasn't too slow, but I had the feeling it was becoming worse. I shut it down for the night, tried it again this morning : launched copying... and it decided to reboot alone :3
I encountered even an issue of a system registry file "missing or corrupt" File:\Windows\System32\config\system". And I can't repair using a windows repair cd : it loops now indefinitely while trying to find the OS.
Now, it's really slower than ever. I tried an USB key of ubuntu (see here) : it didn't worked (it freeze). Tried same for Kaspersky recovery USB Key : doesn't work too.

Now, my computer is extremely slow, even for going in safe mode. I was really happy to see that I was able to see a command windows in the safe mode with prompt command, after more than 40 minutes of waiting.
I'm copying some really important files thanks to this. Yes, I'm backing up as much as I can thanks to a dos command. Folder by folder. It's slow and complicated (I'm really not used to this, and I don't know commands :P) but at least, I can save some files.

If you read until there, thank you very much :)

My mains questions :
Remember that even if I really would like to save my data, I have very limited funds so I must always think with "limiting expenses as much as possible".
- I have my recovery DVDs that I burned when I got my computer. If I restore Windows (not the total recovery to factory settings which will erase everything, the other option) : does it wipe out only Windows file or at worst the whole C:\ partition but let my D:\ part full of data, or is it a nuke bomb and will erase my partition D:\ ? It specifies it would save my "personal files", but I'm not using the windows usual storage folders for them (my documents, my music, etc...) and not really trusting this statement. I know restoring windows could be a solution, but... my data !
- Do you think I can solve this without asking to a professional ? (hm...)
- Can I save my data myself ?
- Do you think my drive is simply dying ?
- Any advice ? Thoughts ?

Sorry if it's long & chaotic, but I'm struggling with that since Friday, and I am pretty desperate. Still, thanks a lot for reading, and eventually giving your opinion :) And keep in mind that I don't want to take too much time from anyone !
By the way, if I decide to go see someone at a local store, I'll tell you immediately of course, and will tell you how things evolve ;)

I only have one haste : that all of this ends, and my comp' runs again.

Note : Always back-up your data if you can. Always.

Edit : Now that everything is solved, I gathered the softwares and some links suggested along this thread, you can see that here :) Thanks to everyone who helped !

*** Er, just re-read the part where D is just a partition on the same drive. Yeah, be careful. If you don't mess with the partitions then that data should be okay. That said, you're not trying to restore Windows on the crappy C drive, are you? If I read correctly you're getting a whole mess of errors on it already, hardware errors, so it is not a good idea to try to continue using it.

If you have stuff installed on the D partition, you'll likely lose access to those programs until you reinstall them. That's because you'll be killing all the registry entries for those installations when you re-do the C drive. If it's truly just data on D (photos, music, other backup stuff) then you *should* be fine. But again, I wouldn't use that drive any longer if the WD software says it's in bad shape, in which case you'll have to reinstall that software anyway.

For what it's worth, you say you don't know what you're doing but it sounds like you're doing a decent job fighting your way through through the problems with the knowledge that you have, along with some help from the internet. Given that, I would hold off on using a "pro". And I put that word in quotes because I dealt with a System Administrator (capitalized in his email, so we all know that he's a professional) today who didn't know how to copy files from one DOS PC to another. Save the money on a "pro" and put Windows on the new hard drive, then move your D data over to the new drive. If you can swing it, buy a second hard drive and use that as your D drive.

My 2 cents as a DIY guy who does NOT do this stuff on a daily basis. But I think the key is that WD Lifeguard says that drive is crap, so I would use it only long enough to get the data off of it and then start fresh with a new drive.

Good luck. Others will chime in shortly with better advice than I can give.

Have you tried system restore?

In search bar type System Restore.

If you have a Win 7 DVD then boot it and select repair my system.

You will get an option of System Restore. Choose a system restore point of any date earlier than when this problem showed up.

From what you describe it's obvious that your hard drive is dying. If you want to save as much data as possible, then stop using the PC until you get a new HDD. Trying to restore Windows probably makes matters worse, creating more bad sectors on it and corrupting more data.

If you know how to remove/install components in your PC, then wait until you get a new HDD. Replace the old one, install windows on it and everything you need. After that put back the old HDD and start copying your data on the new one. Best of luck!

clickclickclickclickclickclickclick? Or tick...tick...tick? If it's the first one, your hard drive is about to die forever. If it's the second one, it's maybe not as bad.

Do you have a friend who has a desktop computer you can use? If you can take your hard drive out of your computer, and attach it to your friends computer, you may be able to transfer files much more quickly, since you won't be reading/writing to your own drive as part of the O/S process. If you are able to get help from a friend, that might be the best way.

Once you have all your information copied to another drive, you can consider options to fix your hard drive. If you have a Windows install disk (or are prepared to change operating systems) you might even consider something like DBAN. A zero-fill run a dozen times or so might actually help fix the drive. Sometimes magnetics literally just wear down and need written and rewritten a bunch of times to refresh them.

Yep, I was trying to fix windows on the crappy partition :P But now I understood that I should better try to save everything I can before doing any kind of "serious operation". I'm only afraid of the disk health now : it's always running at 100% capacity :/
On D:\ there are only datas and no installed softwares :) I learned that it's always better to separate Windows partition from data partition :P And if I restored windows, it was in priority to backup my datas, then check health of the disk (I'm not really trusting it anymore:P).

So to save my files, maybe the best would simply be that I buy some... "adaptator" (don't know the name) to transform my internal harddrive to an usb drive, and so back up everything thanks to another comp' ?
My goal is now to
1) backup everything I can
2) do several strong scans concerning health/dead sectors of old harddrive
3) if not bad, maybe reinstall windows.
4) repeat 2)
But there are good chances I'll go with a new harddrive. Is it easy to install ? Maybe I'll buy two smaller, as you advise, if they aren't too expensive, I'll ask the prices tomorrow !

Thank you very much for your support !! That's really rising my mood, it was getting pretty low after all the last days.
And seriously, thanks to all the people on the web who help each others and share knowledge !

I'll see what I can do tomorrow, probably going to the store buying an usb adaptator for my harddrive and asking some advices.
I never manipulated hardware, that's pretty scary ! And I hope my BIOS/EFI aren't too messy because of me :/

Thank you again for your thoughts and the support, that was kind and appreciated :)

^^ This is what you must do: your hard drive is dying, and you *must* stop using it, including just booting up, since every time you do you are risking it dying on you for good, with no prospect of ever recovering your data.

The only recovery point was corrupted so it wasn't possible unfortunately :P (yeah I know, it was my lucky week) That's what I was expecting.
Ok, I think I'll buy tomorrow something to convert it to an usb drive : I'm currently on my very old laptop which will permit me to save the data to my external harddrive. It was only one long tick who wasn't stopping at all.
I'm on my old laptop who was taking dust since years :) Glad it's still working pretty well !
DBAN ? What's that ?

Okay, I take note and won't boot again my comp' for now.

So my plans for tomorrow : going to local store, buying something to be able to transform my internal harddrive to an usb harddrive. This way, I'll connect it to my old laptop to do the transfer to the external drive I received one day too late to do the backup properly. I'll ask for advices in the shop (maybe there'll usefull tips too), and will consider buying 1 or two harddrive in replacement of my current dying one.

I'm afraid with the idea of manipulating myself the harddrive but well... that shouldn't be impossible to do, even for someone like me.

Thank you veeeery much for your help and support all :)

Edit :
By the way if I buy a new harddrive : I won't be able to use the recovery dvds from the computer ? It will have to be a real new install of windows 7 ? Is it complicated to do that from scratch ?

is a [url=https://www.techopedia.com/definition/10143/zero-filling]zero-fill tool used for especially thorough formatting of hard drives.

If your hard drive is losing actuator arm function, it's no use (and one long click that never stops is sometimes called the click of death because there's not much a normal user can do once that starts to fail) but if you're losing magnetics, or just need to be very thorough in formatting a disk, it's a useful tool.

Okay, I'll remember that and will try when I'll have backed up my data (if I can) :)
Thanks for the explanations !

Well, everything has already been said.

You basically abused that poor dying drive, instead of simply backupping your data ASAP.. good luck now.. :\

I agree with your plan, and I'd like to give you a potential hint to recovering your data. I've only once had problems with a dying HDD, on which I couldn't access any data due to bad sectors on MBR. The HDD was littered with bad sectors, but the bad MBR prevented me from accessing anything at all. However I managed to copy ALL my data(except two unimportant files) to an external HDD, by using RECUVA(the free version). I sympathies with the prospect of losing your data, so maybe this will help you.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact option I used, maybe it was a deep scan which also scanned for non-deleted files.

Yeah, I know :/ Argh, if you knew how much I regret ! My lack of experience & of knowledge are to blame, and in addition I should've asked here a lot earlier, but I (stupidly) didn't wanted to annoy people with my problems :/ (and I wanted to try to identify before asking) I won't be such dumb next time, and won't hesitate as much ;)
Yesterday while I was typing in this thread, I managed to copy one folder thanks to dos command. Copy seems to went pretty well but I preferred to turn my comp' off after this operation after hearing all your advices, awaiting my future purchase to hopefully do a backup in better conditions. So I'm crossing fingers a lot of course but well, I'm thinking all hopes concerning backup aren't lost. *crosses fingers*

I remember this software, I used it when I deleted a file by error some years ago. I didn't thought it could be of help in my situation, good thing to know I may have a tool to help me trying to recover eventual lost files, thanks a lot for the hint & sympathy :)

I'll go to the shop in middle-end of the afternoon, I hope everything will goes well.

Edit : Oh by the way : any advice for a good free software to perform the "chkdsk" operations ? (=checking for bad sectors, repairing...)

I'm no expert, but in hindsight, what I should have done, immediately after suspecting my HDD was dying, should have been to quickly create a disk image with Clonezilla.

1. I should have used the "Clonezilla live" download,
2. Written the downloaded CD Image to a CD to create a boot disk,
3. Rebooted my computer using the Clonezilla boot disk,
4. Create a clone image of the dying disk, saving it on a SAFE DISK.
5. Then I should have tried to recover my data from the clone image.

Without a doubt this is what you should have done when you realized that your disk is failing, had you known about this. However, I have no idea if this is still a viable solution. Maybe others more knowledgeable will chime in with their opinions about this.