Use recovery software to recover all the files, it should still be intact if you don't full format it.
I'm not too sure if there's free version out there that can help recover all but maybe Gurus here can help with this case, free + useful software that works like Stellar Phoenix or GetData.

If the HDD keeps on giving you errors such as Pending Sectors Count then it's probably sign of failure, backup and send for RMA for the safe side. You can contact their customer support on this case, they may help you to identify this case as special case, and help you RMA your HDD easier.

Wrong place to ask
Please ask here instead... https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2472769

You can bring your laptop to the shop and see yours can fit the 12mm (if I'm not mistaken) drive into your laptop, otherwise you might drop your range to 750GB or 500GB.

He's asking about laptop HDD, not the normal desktop 3.5", and it's about thickness not size.
And I don't see any laptop yet using the 3.5"... unless someone invented it.

Western Digital laptop (2.5") drives' thickness chart.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/ (Z-height)

Seagate laptop (2.5") drives' thickness chart.
(Click Specifications below the chart.)
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drive...op-hard-drives/ (Height)

Hope this can be pin/copy at first page for easy reference.

Your HDD should be back by now?
Usually it took between 3 days to 1 week the most, depends on the courier as well and how long do they process your "spoilt HDD".
Mine only took 3 days, PosLaju is fortunately fast on the delivery to UPS in Selangor then transit to Singapore then all the way to China (based on tracking), and it was shown received and processing the next day, and just a day after it was shown delivered from UPS in Selangor, well I received the very next day, 4 days? Could be that I'm lucky. Posted on Saturday, received on Wednesday. Newly packed Samsung (with Seagate label) HDD.

Use the WDC software to diagnose your HDD, if the result is fail then you may proceed with the RMA, if your shop still able to process your RMA without extra cost then you may just send there, save some $, if not you may choose to let them earn a bit by packing and sending for you or you may try to send it yourself over to WDC in Malaysia, I have yet to send a WDC one, found the RMA process in the web is slightly tedious than Seagate.

If it's a SATA drive, you may connect directly just like you connect your desktop SATA drive, just be sure to hold it in a secured position so it won't vibrate too much. Some chassis allow one to install laptop size (2.5") HDD or SDD (main objective).
If it's an old PATA 2.5" drive then you may need to find converter for it, PATA to SATA or PATA to USB.

There're several diagnose methods, did you tried them all?
If all diagnose returns OK, then you may disk wipe (Low level format tool) to try to rectify the "Pending Sectors Count", it can solve by re-writing and reading the sectors again to verify if it's still OK, otherwise it'll mark as bad and you'll see "Reallocated Sectors Count" raised.
Before you do this, backup all the data on the HDD to another if you have enough space, otherwise borrow friend's external HDD for few days .
LLF (Low level format) tool can be obtain here:
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/
Use the free version which will cap your speed at 50MB/s, will take quite sometimes if your HDD is huge.
Or you might be able to find similar function at WDC diagnostic tools (WRITE ZERO).

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Jan 25 2013, 10:56 AM

What's your WDC Green model? Was it the 1TB? I also has one and died just last year, just after warranty (was 3-year)
Now looking for Green with 3-year (CCTV use), since I'll probably upgrade to bigger one after 3 years

Check Disk Management to see if the HDD is bring partitioned. (Right click Computer > Manage)
They probably didn't format the other partition (unallocated).

If the partition is already formatted then just assign a drive letter and you're done, you can open as usual, but if it's unallocated space, then you need to format it before you use.

Can you please post your Disk Management's screen shot?

p/s: Hold Alt and press Print Screen to get the Windows sized screen shot only.

You should not have used that Check Disk function, Windows Check Disk usually recover all the files in another file format and you need to either guess the file (through rename) to get it back or uses special software that actually reads file header (not even 50% reliable), sometimes you can't even recover the file (truncated/fragment of files).
The best thing is when you got hit by data lost, immediately recover using data recovery software to another media (external hard disk or whatever you can use). Data recovery software is plenty out there, Hiren BootCD has some of it and it's open source (free to use).

And, try reading the SMART next time, it helps you prepared for your next step.

As for your current condition, just copy everything from your hard disk, and start recovery on the existing data later. Most probably you'll lost most of it, but instead of recover on the same hard disk which will increase the failing and destroy more data, copy anything that can be copied to another media for safe keep.

There's no such thing as reliability, things will broke down when you least notice it, which is why RAID and Backup exist to help minimize lost.
Best setup is ex. 1TB x 3 (RAID5) or 1TB x 4 (RAID6) with another set (External hard disk, media) that does Backup every another day, week or month. If you want to safe keep your data, keep it multiple copy, paranoid? Keep it multiple media, DVDs, hard disk, tape (too expensive though).
Want reliability? Then fork out $$, simple as that.

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Mar 14 2013, 11:15 AM

I'm a Kaspersky user myself and I can confirm that it'll ask everytime you plug-in a USB media, for unless that external HDD has no problem it won't constantly popup such window. You can however disable that option but you'll have to manually scans it by going to My Computer.
Do you experience movie or the media player hanged before the popup?

Your chassis (Storm Scout 2) already has all the hard disk caddy inside the hard disk cage, you do not need to buy extra, if you want to utilize the optical/removable drive cage to install hard disk, that's different story, you need something like 4-in-3 hard disk cage that can be installed to removable drive cage.

I don't think there's anyone out there selling this unless they don't plan to add extra hard disk in their chassis any more.
Also this items is not in the accessories area so I assume they don't sell these separately.

You can ask at Garage Sales to try your luck.

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Aug 2 2013, 11:28 AM

You can use HDDScans to get the SMART after you connect successfully to your Windows PC, then try to verify the issue from there, if you can't get the SMART through the USB controller then you need to plug into a desktop system and get it from there.
If your HDD does not support SMART then you can try to verify by plug-in other HDD of the same size into the external casing and see if the same issue arise.
Also test your current HDD by plug-in to a normal desktop system and test it to see if it has trouble starting up, normally you can hear the sound better by locate the HDD outside of the casing, you should be able to hear the motor and head seeking noise.

Good luck.

p/s: Hope you can understand my language, I'm pretty straight forward here, assuming you know some of the technical get around.

I don't think there'll be any "market price" for this hard disk unless some desperate enough to buy the PATA type of which is just darn rare now even you do found one, it's 1GB per RM, crazy expensive.

Either one should be fine I guess, base on luck though, my WD Green 1TB broke down (too much bad sectors) after the warranty expired.
But I guess Seagate RMA procedure is much simple, never done WD RMA before.

Oh... really? Last my Samsung RMA drive is quite new or am I not sensitive enough to notice it?
The returned drive seems new to me, no scratches at all, board were clean, no sign of being repaired (or like I said above?)

But that darn drive (WDC) died on me when it just expired...

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Sep 2 2013, 09:54 AM