Slow Hard drive

[zanos]

Anyone know what to do about a slow hard drive? I can access it fine but when it comes to stuff like moving data from the drive to another, burning images off of it, etc., it slows to a crawl.

[gadgetguy]

Sounds like it has slipped back into PIO mode.

[InXess]

If in PIO mode (as above) -> Reinstall your busmastering software - motherboard drivers. Remove (uninstall) primary and secondary IDE controllers (Dev. Manager). reboot.

[akrako1]

check the defragmentation of the drive. I use Diskkeeper, which is much better then the bundled Windows one... Might be a trial you can try out... Also check your control panel -> device manager for any conflicts (you'll see an ! or X next to incorrectly installed components)

[TBoneit]

And rarely the drive itself can become dead slow. Had one here at work you could install XP on it and it would take forever to boot or do anything once booted.

Ghosting it to a new drive, windows booted fine and everything was good again. IOWs same windows install etc...

And no it wasn't in PIO mode. It was in DMA mode. Passed all the dirve makers diagnostics too. Just sickly snail slow.

[InXess]

bad sectors but outside of data in-use will slow down HDD and eventually, if not fixed, bring it to a halt. Scan the drive with manuf. software - full test.