BSOD Upon Windows Startup; HDD related

Well, first and foremost I have the .dmp files attached below compressed to .zip. Now, the problem is my system will experience recurring BSODs, ranging from when the operating system initially starts, or shortly after; if the operating system loads, the system occasionally hitches while the HDD in question spins up and down. When the BSOD does in fact occur, the error is to the effect of "bad_pool_header".

I've read the dmp files and realize there must be a read error (when I don't have the HDD connected, all of my operating systems load fine and the file indicates an error reading a file); now here comes my main question. If the problem is indeed the HDD, how would I go about formatting it, if that would fix it? I've already tried using the tools included with the drive, and killdisk to no avail as the system hitches.

The HDD in question is a WD5000AAKS SataII hard drive, roughly one and a half years old, if that helps at all.

 

if you've tried the western digital tools already, did they report a problem? my guess is it's fried...so no use formatting..

 

The tools didn't report a problem because I can't get that far with an operating system before it crashes; I did once but I only got a glimpse of it saying something to the effect of "? - not available" before it disappeared and the computer stopped recognizing it. S.M.A.R.T. status, of course.

 

Most HD manufacturers provide bootable toolkits for diagnosing and (sometimes) repairing drives. Have a look on WD's site for information.

Failing that, google, download, burn, and boot from 'Ultimate Boot CD'. This is a collection of tools that can be used to boot and analyse your system. IIRC, the WD tools are included on that disc. A word of warning though: If possible, don't blindly run all these tools. Many of them can really mess up your system if you don't have some idea what you're doing. Plenty of tutorials are available if you can find them.

Try disabling the Microsoft Indexing Service in msconfig.

Another Q: did you recently install SP2?

 

Alright, thanks for your detailed response. I have not recently installed SP2, and WD's diagnostics tools only detect my IDE drives, not my SATA drive. So, I'll google the aforementioned CD and post back. Thanks again.