Is my harddrive the problem?? virus or something else?

May 10th, 2005, 09:49 PM

first the computer specs:

mainboard: ECS K7S5A
cpu: AMD athlon XP 2200
ram: 1 GB, 2 sticks of generic 512MB ram
video: Geforce FX 5700
1 floppy drive.

On first cable => IDE 0: 40GB harddrive

On second cable => IDE 1: a)20GB harddrive (windowsXP os installed here)
(this is the HD with problem)
b)NEC CD/DVD writer 16x

operating system: windows XP professional
prefered browser: Firefox (havent used IE once since last computer format)
prefered p2p: Emule

note: I was unable to put the 2 harddrives into the same cable because of hardware specific conflict. I think the brands are not compatible with each other since my 2 HD are of different brands and it won't work on the same IDE cable.

The Problem =>

For some reason my computer is taking longer and longer to retrieve info from the harddrive than it used to be. I tried the disk defragment program but it doesn't seem to change much in terms of hard disk performance.

However when I run a program (i.e. games, movie players, internet media) the loaded program seems to run at full speed. Lets say I run a movie file, it would take long to load the file but when it runs, it is smooth and flawless. No side effects or slowdowns in games either.

Basically it is only slow when a program starts up. It is taking 3-4 times longer for my HD to find,copy,move,cut,delete files. It takes 4 times longer for the desktop to load up. And it is a toned down desktop even (special effects off and display color to 16MB). About a year ago the startup time was much faster.

Most manuals suggest that strange noises would be a sign of harddrive malfunction but I haven't noticed any noises and I have used it for about 5 years already.

Is it the harddrive, a virus or something else that is the problem??

May 11th, 2005, 07:11 AM

When was the last time you installed your Microsoft XP operating system?

I'm forced to use Microsoft at the office and at about the 6 - 7 month mark I have to re-install XP in order to correct this problem.

I've asked our company's IT dept. and they cannot suggest anything different.

May 11th, 2005, 07:30 AM

The fact that your hard drive are of a differend brand has zero impact on wether you can hook them both on the same cable. You do have to set the jumper correctly on them tough. You should either set them both as cable select or set one as master and the other as slave.

Also, HD are not eternal . You can run a test program on it to check for bad sector or other problem, but since you can buy a 120gig HD for about $75.00 these day I wouldn't waste to much time trying to rescue a 20gig HD.

And you do have to reinstall windows occasionnaly. For myself, what I do is I do a clean install then use a program like symantec Ghost to clone my system drive to a dvd-r or on cd-r or on another HD. Then when I start to have some problem with my system I just backup my personnal file and dump the image back on the disk (it takes about 10 minute to do that).

I hope this help you.

May 11th, 2005, 08:33 AM

On first cable => IDE 0: 40GB harddrive

On second cable => IDE 1: a)20GB harddrive (windowsXP os installed here)
(this is the HD with problem)
b)NEC CD/DVD writer 16x "

It might have something to do with fact you have you're boot drive on the same cable as your DVD. I wouldn't set it up this way. I would put the boot drive on the primary cable, (IDE 0) and the DVD and secondary hard drive on the second cable (IDE 1). It isn’t imperative in any way to have the boot drive alone on IDE 0, it just maybe that the DVD ROM is interfering with data retrieval, by slowing down the BUS. Make sure the jumpers are set correctly on each device...(if you were playing around with the jumper set up, you may have forgot to set them accordingly).

IDE 0 - boot drive
IDE 1 - DVD and 40 gig.


"The Problem =>

For some reason my computer is taking longer and longer to retrieve info from the hard drive than it used to be. "

Did this happen after you hooked up the new drive, or was it like that before?

Good luck.

May 11th, 2005, 09:07 AM

One of the more likely causes of a slowdown such as you describe, given that your hardware seems to be functioning correctly, is spyware. Download and install Spybot Search & Destroy from here , check for updates on the first run, then let it scan your system.

May 11th, 2005, 09:25 AM

And that's a cryin' shame. Especially for the price Microsoft customers pay for their operating system. Fortunately, they don't have any of my money

May 11th, 2005, 09:29 AM

Who said I paid for it

I have to work and support it at work, but the only machine I have at home running on windows xp is my PVR.

I have a Powermac G5 has my main worksation, an Athlon64 Linux server, a Pentium 4 2.4ghz HT for my PVR running winXP and an old Pentium 2 450mhz runing linux that I use as a remote terminal for the other machine.

May 11th, 2005, 10:12 AM

Naw, it's worse than that, it's inexcusable. No other operating system I know of in the history of computing requires annual reinstallation to keep it running properly because it routinely mangles its own innards so badly, and doesn't even provide any real maintenance tools to help you keep it in shape. Here's a lovely rant on the subject for your edification and amusement.

May 11th, 2005, 10:35 AM

I think the quality of hardware has a lot to do with it though. I used to run win 2000 on my 1 machine; I did so for two years or so. I never had to reboot the machine, it would never crash. I would keep it running for months at a time. (My Linux user friend was always amazed by this fact.)

I now have a XP box, and it never crashes, and I run it for months at a time without rebooting it.

Now win 98 or Millennium edition, that’s different. They were bad OPS.

May 11th, 2005, 04:49 PM

My windows XP was formated about a year ago. So performance decrease is the nature of windows XP right? and the most efficient way is to reinstall windows correct??

I am hesitant about reformatting because of the programs and device drivers I have to reinstall. i.e. video codecs, audio device drivers, utility programs.... If I just reinstall windows, than the registries and any links between the application and the OS will be lost meaning that you can't run some applications without reinstalling them(most applications, in my case). Is there a way to relink the programs to the OS somehow so that you don't have to reinstall??

Also I am not sure what is this GHOST program some of you speak of. I haven't used these backup techniques before because my backup method consists of just burning everything to cd/dvd.

Now about the harddrive, when I put them on the same cable, the resultant is that there is a huge performance decrease. although it seems more like there is some kind of conflict between the devices. The jumpers are set to master for the harddrive with windows OS and slave for the other harddrive.

May 12th, 2005, 07:03 AM

Ghost make a perfect byte for byte copie of your hard disk, a mirror image if you like. To reinstall your system you just dump this image back on your hard drive (after making a backup of the file you modified or downloaded since making the ghost). The whole operation take between 10 to 30 minute. Way faster than reinstalling windows then all your drivers then all your apps. This image file can be created on another hard disk, cd-r or dvd+/-r.

We, where I work, use it all the time for system deployment and backup of pc. It's quite reliable.

June 24th, 2005, 12:55 PM

This is what I would do,
1st, Get a good virus scanner, eg Norton 2005
2nd, Get another virus scanner to double check (uninstall later)
3rd, Get spyware removal software
4th, Disk Clean up
5th, Remove un-needed software
6th, Check your virtual memory
7th , Defragment

and you definately want to swap them disk drives around, on the primary cable your OS should be and the jumper should be set to master, this doesnt change any thing but it is ment to be like that for repair purposes (i have 2 degrees in computer engineering and 1 in programming i think i know what im on about)
set the over HD to slave and leave that IDE cable with the CD on it but the CD set as Master
Tell me if it works, also consider getting all the Service packs for windows and update your drivers regularly, all of these above things can effect the speed/performance of the computer

June 24th, 2005, 08:15 PM

If you went open source you would not have to worry about any of that. For the life of me I can not understand why people still run Microsoft windows, always something going wrong with it. Not to mention the costs for OS and all the other programs you need.

June 24th, 2005, 08:39 PM

I have to agree... why bother with all of that run-about?

Using Linux has freed up so much of my time on the computer. I actually have time to learn new things out of desire, instead of necessity.

When I was a Microsoft user, I HAD to learn things in order to keep things running and maintained. Always having to fix things (things that you'd have working one day, then not the next for some unknown reason) because of faulty software is not a fun way to learn.

Now, I read about how someone did something with Linux and I think, "hmmm... how did they do that and I wonder if I can do the same, or change/improve it in some way?" Or I see something cool someone has done with their Linux desktop environment and I want to learn how to do it, too.

It's a much better way to learn than fighting fires all of the time.

And, yes, sometimes I botch it up... but that's just inexperience on my part. However, recovering a Linux system is much easier, at least from my point of view.

Anyway.... off my soap-box.

August 11th, 2005, 12:33 PM

i wud convert 100% to linux if i ddnt need windows 4 things such as gaming and microsoft studio etc, which r things i need 2 hav

August 11th, 2005, 02:46 PM

Dual-boot is the answer, there.

Boot into Windows for your games and Studio... Linux for everything else.

Simple.