Help with slow running hard drive

Ron-P

Just today my hard drive started hanging up a lot. I'll click or highlight something and it freezes for several seconds and then starts running. I also get quite a few not responding errors when running FireFox. Not sure what's going on, any ideas?

I ran a full Webroot sweep and defrag, didn't help at all.

Fongolio

Try a spyware removing tool like adaware. See how much space is left on your main drive, XP or Vista like a minimum 20% free space for smooth running.

lomic

Is your hard drive making any strange noise when this is occurring? It could be either spyware/malware/virus or, among a few more exotic things, a bad sector on your hard drive.

You can check for bad sectors by going to your Start button -> Run -> "sfc /scannow" without the quotes to run Microsoft Scandisk.

In theory Scandisk can fix bad sectors, but it's not a very robust program. There's a professional grade program called Spinrite which has saved hard drives for me in the past, but it costs $89, which is almost as much as a new 1TB drive

Best of luck.

BobMcG

It could be a couple of problems working against you, spyware and registry errors.

For excellent Anti Spyware try:

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-amp-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?tag=mncol;pop

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?tag=mncol;pop

http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10196637.html?tag=mncol;pop

To repair and de-frag your registry try:

http://www.download.com/WinASO-Registry-Optimizer/3000-2094_4-10260558.html?tag=mncol

There are others but I've been using these for years and am familar and happy with these.

Kex

lomic wrote: »

... In theory Scandisk can fix bad sectors, but it's not a very robust program. There's a professional grade program called Spinrite which has saved hard drives for me in the past, but it costs $89, which is almost as much as a new 1TB drive ...

SpinRite is worth every penny IMO, and worth having in any case for almost everyone. You will know the answer to your hard drive health diagnosis if you use it, but if there is a lot of damage, it can take anything from several hours to several days to run.

It's a very small download, and will boot from a floppy drive or CD (if you have a bootable CD drive). It starts running just after the BIOS on startup, so it does not matter if the OS is functioning or not. Forget degfrag and scandisk: they are useless Microsh!t IMO :eek:.

http://www.grc.com/cs/prepurch.htm

Shizelbs

Switch to Apple

ben62670

If you have any data you care about you will first remove the Hard drive, and back it up before you start playing with it.

bobman1235

There's a nice free program called CCleaner that will find and fix most registry errors, can sometimes lead to odd slowness.

polkatese

agreed with Bob, ccleaner is da bomb. The other prevention toolset i use is http://hijackthis.com to remove IE/FF implanted spam codes.

Ron-P

Thanks guys, I've tried many of those suggestions above to no avail. This thing is starting to dog big time. I'm at a loss at this point so it looks like a trip to the shop, or have my buddy look at it.

polkatese

one last option, Ron:

Backup HD
Reformat/replace HDD
Restore

If I were you, get a new 1TB HDD (Seagate Barracuda would be my choice) from NewEgg and replace yours. I had several HDD in the past that acting up, and with the price of HDD where they are now, sometimes is not worthed to tinker. At the minimum, use the old one for spare (if it is still good).

Ron-P

I've never backed up an HDD before, any tips on how to do it? Can I do it on a CD or DVD type disc?

Kex

Ron-P wrote: »

I've never backed up an HDD before, any tips on how to do it? Can I do it on a CD or DVD type disc?

It's much easier with an external HDD. They're cheap now too. You should really have one handy for backups anyway. DVD and CD takes too much time and effort IMO, with the amount of stuff we all store on our HDD these days.

Ron-P, did you try the SpinRite software? If you don't like it, you have thirty days to get a refund. It will either fix it, and tell you your hard drive is crap; fix it and tell you hard drive is fine; or attempt to fix some of it, and tell you your hard drive is crap. I think it's worth a shot: I dropped a working laptop, and still got 99.9% of my data off it with SpinRite, and it could no longer even boot, not to mention the weird noises it made! I think I lost one e-mail message, and even that was readable, it just refused to copy anywhere else.

P.S. and you're close to Fry's, so you could just get over there and buy one!

polkatese

Ron, get an external HDD with USB, plug-it-in, and go to XP - Accessories - System Tools - Backup. Or, if have no problem reinstalling the apps, copy (drag and drop) your files to the external HDD. I agree with Kex, burning files onto CD is too much work. A lot easier to get external HDD and be done with it. Here is one that's practical:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8968165&st=external+hdd&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1217030494846

Ron-P

Thanks guys. I'll pick up an external HDD in a couple of days.

I have not tried SpinRite, it's $90 and I'm not sure if I want to spend that much. Is it possible to run my computer off an external HDD and bypass the internal one altogether?

polkatese

how old is your computer, Ron? if it's build after 2003, you have the option to boot up from USB, thus then you can use an external HDD or flash drive to boot up.

Ron-P

It was built after 2003, it's maybe 2 years old, if that. How can I find out how I can boot up from a USB?

...and thanks again for all your help bro.

average_guy

Kex wrote: »

SpinRite is worth every penny IMO, and worth having in any case for almost everyone. You will know the answer to your hard drive health diagnosis if you use it, but if there is a lot of damage, it can take anything from several hours to several days to run.

It's a very small download, and will boot from a floppy drive or CD (if you have a bootable CD drive). It starts running just after the BIOS on startup, so it does not matter if the OS is functioning or not. Forget degfrag and scandisk: they are useless Microsh!t IMO :eek:.

http://www.grc.com/cs/prepurch.htm

I didn't know about SpinRite. I could have used it a few months back. I'm going to check it out.

If anyone thinks software for recovery at less than $100 is a high price, try using a recovery service...

Ron-P

My current HDD is only 150gigs so I found some at Best Buy (following your link) for 200 gigs for $70 and less, I also have $20 in rewardzone certs I can use so I should be able to get out pretty cheap.

polkatese

Ron, as you turned on the PC, hit F2 to get to the setup, you should see an option to enable boot up from USB as an option. Usually sequence is: boot up from floppy, USB, CD, and internal HDD. Enable boot-up sequence from USB, and internal HDD, then it will look into USB first (before it goes to internal HDD).

Ron-P

average_guy wrote: »

I didn't know about SpinRite. I could have used it a few months back. I'm going to check it out.

If anyone thinks software for recovery at less than $100 is a high price, try using a recovery service...

Thing is, I don't store much of anything on my computer. Of my 150 gig HDD, I have 131 gigs of free space. So spending the money on recovery software vr buying a new drive doesn't seem to be worth it.

polkatese

Ron-P wrote: »

My current HDD is only 150gigs so I found some at Best Buy (following your link) for 200 gigs for $70 and less, I also have $20 in rewardzone certs I can use so I should be able to get out pretty cheap.

yep, overcapacity in the production of HDD causes the price to plummet. That's why it is more cost effective nowadays to replace the HDD than tinkering with it (assuming that you have a backup of important data to be transferred)

average_guy

Ron-P wrote: »

Thing is, I don't store much of anything on my computer. Of my 150 gig HDD, I have 131 gigs of free space. So spending the money on recovery software vr buying a new drive doesn't seem to be worth it.

Understood. I guess you have to balance the value of the data versus the cost of recovery. My data was for our business and would have been worth spending $90 for recovery software, let alone the time involved in rebuilding things.

BTW, I have the Seagate 1TB drive purchased from my local MicroCenter. Lots of space for not a lot of money. Remember when Bill Gates said 256 mb of HD space would be all anyone would ever need? (Of course he worked for Tandy [Radio Shack] at the time....) (NOTE: This is NOT an endorsement for Microsoft :cool: )

Kex

polkatese wrote: »

yep, overcapacity in the production of HDD causes the price to plummet. That's why it is more cost effective nowadays to replace the HDD than tinkering with it (assuming that you have a backup of important data to be transferred)

For me, it's not just the cost of replacement issue, since that is really minimal, but I'm not going to install a new hard drive once or twice a year, so having some form of DIY maintenance and diagnosis for $90, that can also rescue lost data from the most severe damage I'm likely to ever encounter, and for all of my home machines (just three for the moment, maybe one more later), seems like the best bargain since free AVG and firewalls! Laptops don't always like being opened up too often either (fiddly, delicate connectors on some components), so it's worth it just to avoid having to do that more often than necessary (although the larger ones sometimes have an easy access door to hard drives).

sucks2beme

I've had a few problems with laptop drives. There have been a number of
Brands in certain sizes that tend to die early. My current Hp had a drive go
bad about 8 months ago. It started slowing down, and I ran a backup.
The drive died shortly afterward. POS. There was a run of Dells
dropping harddrives a couple of years ago. Everyone in my group that
had one had it replaced. Backing up data is a good thing. Even you MAC
weenies better do backups. All harddrives fall sooner or later.

Ron-P

Las, that first link does not work. I tried the second and it did nothing to help. I also ran MSCONFIG and turned off some stuff upon startup, that did nothing to help either. At this point I think it's time for a new HDD.



So, once I get my external and back everything up. I'll buy a new internal, plug it in. After that, how do I get my backed up HDD all onto the new internal HDD?

Kex

Ron-P wrote: »

... So, once I get my external and back everything up. I'll buy a new internal, plug it in. After that, how do I get my backed up HDD all onto the new internal HDD?

Here's what I did with mine, after my crash (after dropping the laptop by accident, when it was still running):

- Run SpinRite for data rescue.
- Remove internal hard drive to an external enclosure with the correct connector (they're about $20 or less).
- Install a new internal hard drive.
- Install the O.S. on the new drive.
- Copy data from the old drive (My Documents, e-mail storage etc.).

Example:

http://www.amazon.com/USB-External-Enclosure-Case-Laptop/dp/B000FNBYKW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231002281&sr=8-3

Just make sure you get an enclosure with the correct connector for the internal hard drive currently in your laptop.

When you're finished, if you want to, you can still install a second new hard drive in the external enclosure, and use it for back up, so the enclosure will actually still be useful (if the old drive is really damaged, it should never be used for back up).

If you don't want to use SpinRite, you can use the same procedure without the rescue part (first item).

If you copy information to an external drive FIRST, then you will still need to remove your internal drive, install a new internal drive, install the O.S. and then copy the relevant information onto the new hard drive installed in your laptop.

avelanchefan

Kex could not explain it any better. Just do what he says Ron. Seriously it sounds difficult but once you do it, it is a fairly easy process.

Just plan on at least 5 hours. Between the back up, putting in the new HDD, reinstall, adding your old stuff back on, and doing all the M$ updates again. It could certainly be less than that, but don't rush it, and dedicate some time to it.

polkatese

Agreed. Kex explained it very clearly. Btw, BB and CC also carry those HDD casing. I believe the one with just USB connection (vs. USB and eSATA) is cheaper and should do the job. SATA HDD would be what you're looking for (based on your computer's estimate age) but double check what HDD interface you have.

Ron-P

For $69 I bought a 250gig WD Passport Elite external HDD from Best Buy.

Before I back up my system, what are the chances I'm backing this thing up with the existing problem (if it's software related and not HDD releated). I go to all this trouble and then end up reloading everything back on to only have the same problem.

Or, can I do this...? My desktop runs XP, my laptop runs Vista. Can I back up my laptop on the external HDD, wipeout my desktop HDD and then reload my backed up laptop onto my desktop. Is it possible?

Kex

Ron-P wrote: »

For $69 I bought a 250gig WD Passport Elite external HDD from Best Buy.

Before I back up my system, what are the chances I'm backing this thing up with the existing problem (if it's software related and not HDD releated). I go to all this trouble and then end up reloading everything back on to only have the same problem.

Or, can I do this...? My desktop runs XP, my laptop runs Vista. Can I back up my laptop on the external HDD, wipeout my desktop HDD and then reload my backed up laptop onto my desktop. Is it possible?

Yes, you can use your desktop to reload your laptop files, if you want to do that. The documents you need to save are not O.S. sensitive (a Word document will open up normally on either). You will need to consider what software you use, such as an e-mail client (if you use one: Outlook, Thunderbird ...), that does not store things in the My Documents folder. Check carefully if you want to avoid a very nasty surprise!

In fact, if you can establish a network between your laptop and desktop, or set up a shared folder on your desktop (visible to both machines), you don't even need to use the external hard drive to do this. You could just copy your laptop files over to the desktop, and then wipe your laptop clean with a new installation.

As for the the other issues. You are probably not going to know if you have a software or hardware issue unless you run some of the maintenance software that has been suggested for either circumstance IMO.