[mooncusser]

If the drive is going, you'll want to get all of your personal files off it ASAP. That means pictures, music, documents, spreadsheets, etc.

You can't just move applications from one drive to another, most won't work that way. They typically need to be reinstalled to a new location. Part of it has to do with components installed into Windows, into the Windows Registry and often components that the program sets up in its own folders.

And when it comes to Windows, you'll probably have to reinstall it from scratch on a new drive - which means installing applications anyway.

If it was me, I'd focus on saving the files you can't replace and that have personal information you need. If it can be downloaded (torrents) or reinstalled (applications) you can let them go.

And if you have to freeze the drive to get it to work, I'd be really concerned about possible corruption of data even if it does spin up and let you get in.