help HDD failing

Roberito · January 6, 2017

EDIT: i just tried restarting my pc with switching cables again and that is no longer working so if anyone can help me get this to work i would really appreciate it

first off sorry but i really dont know much about computers so please try to be simple when trying to explain and help.

i have 2 HDDs in my desktop pc i have a 1tb western digital HDD and a 500 HDD (idk where but it was used and repaired i bought my pc with this one in it) and my PC keeps not detecting the 500 HDD and this is the one with my windows os on it so its kinda important and this happens almost all the time the only thing i can do is switch the sata and power cables then it detects both then i turn it off and put the cables back and then it all works fine until the next time i turn off my pc so should i just get rid of it,buy a new sata cable, anything else i really like the extra 500 gb of space but its becoming a real hassle and i also don't want to put that much $ into repairing this or anything because i need a new PC soon.

also 1 more thing if anyone could help i went to the best buy website to see prices for a new HDD and i looked at the 500 HDD and the 1 tb HDD and its like a less than $10 difference between the 2 so it seems like if i do decide to i should just buy the 1 TB but please help explain why there is such a small price difference i added a picture that i took of the 2 with the snipping tool