It is axiomatic with Windows systems that, if the problem is not immediately traceable to a virus or a system app error, it's usually a disk error.

At least you caught this one early on before you started losing data.

BTW, Windows is actually very friendly to users when it comes to data access errors, as it tries to recover data on the fly, and avoid probably-defective storage - it is the inheritor to all the hard-won lessons that mainframes like the 360 family of computers and the minicomputers like the VAX family of computers have gone through. But, it's still not bulletproof - best to (1) back up to offline storage as often as you can and (2) quit using damaged drives as soon as feasible, and here's something very few teach Windows users - (3) keep 20% of your storage space free (and in the case of damaged drives, if you track your free space, you'll notice that the available storage space would start getting smaller and smaller. This might indicate a damaged drive.)

Hey, there's an old-timey solution to resuscitating damaged drives: Format the drive, and then run CHKDSK with the F parameter - it can mark damaged sections of your drive so Windows won't use those parts of the drive anymore (formatting will actually isolate the damaged parts, but this isn't guaranteed - running CHKDSK right after formatting will insure that damaged sections are isolated and left unused). By isolating the damaged portion, this will allow you to continue using the drive, though with space smaller than the original.

However, if the damage is because of a faulty read-write head or a mis-aligned or faulty read-write arm (especially with older drives like from 2008 and older), even if already-damaged sections are isolated, the the number of sectors that are damaged will probably grow.

If the drive is newer, this doesn't happen given the auto-park function where the head is moved to a "parking zone" immediately after power is cut, so you don't have head crashes (though impacts and jolts that are strong enough can still cause a head crash). A head crash is when the read–write head comes in contact with the drive's rotating platter, resulting in permanent damage to the magnetic media on the platter.

If you can afford it, it's always nice to switch over to an SSD - so far, that's the best solution.

BTW, even if you've replaced your drive with a new one, still keep the free space up to 20%. DOS-based and Win-NT based systems assume you have 20% free storage. Less than that is sub-optimal and will cause reeeaaally slow performance and, sometimes write errors.

Anyway, apologies for all this yammering on. Good luck on the recovery/replacement/re-installation. And back up!!
 

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