Windows 10: black screen with cursor after windows update , cant start in safemode

i have taken the drive out and put it in a dock . im running seatools for windows on the drive from my pc

 

the drive appears in windows as local disc (M: ) 915 GB free of 915 GB and also recovery image (N: ) 1.61 GB free of 13.4 GB ,,
sea tools does not see the drive . Windows gives message there are errors on drive (N: ) and option to repair drive ,. should i let it ?

 

Not sure why those smiley faces are there ?? should be : )

 

some of the letter when next to each other produce the smiley faces. Separate the letters to modify them when they occur.

 

is this looking like a hard drive failure ?

 

It needs to be ruled in ruled out.
Doesn't HD Sentinel have more test options
Will it allow surface scan?
When using windows it will display results for each tab:
Overview
Temperature
SMART
Disk performance

 

Here are the available results on HD sentinel , surface check only available on paid version .
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mbh3df6l3...qA5IKfWca?dl=0

 

The free version should have surface scan.
Click on disk > surface test (this may take several hours)
It is a read test.

 

when i click on surface test i get a message " available only after registration and activation

 

See if you can perform a surface test also called:
Full error scan
using HD Tune:
HD Tune website

or

Macrorit Disk Scanner Portable Download:
Macrorit Disk Scanner Portable Download

 

ok , i have run the hd tune pro a couple of times , the first time it brought up a couple of red squares and seemed to get stuck , i left it running while at work today and it seems to have stopped at 999 gb
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fd4dmkntt...0hUdjts2a?dl=0

 

Have you been able to backup all of the files to another drive or to the cloud?
Have you been able to make a backup image with Macrium and save the image to another drive?

 

no , i took the drive out and put it in a caddy connected to my pc

 

Once the files are saved (individual backup and/or image) you then have the ability to clean install the operating system.
The drive can then be reassessed after the clean install.
If the drive is ok then you can restore the files or image.

The HD Tune did not display any bad blocks.
There were problems reported on HD Sentinel.
So additional testing is needed for clarification.

 

the drive is showing as local disc M , which seems to be empty . and recovery image N which opens to prog data , recovery, and windows c shortcut
there doesnt seem to be any files to save