My home computer was built for me 6 or 7 years ago (uses XP). Lately, although I scan it regularly with good software to get rid of the Bad Guys, has been terribly slow doing EVERYTHING. I have an external hard drive for storage (150 GB) that I got at the same time. Put GOBS of stuff on it! a couple weeks ago I could access the external hard drive but not the file folder on it that housed all this stuff. Tried all I could and then I took it to my favorite geek. He was able to run some software on it and get it repaired. He also copied that big file onto a new (500 GB) hard drive. NOW, when I sign in to and use my home computer, everything it does is faster and easier. All old computers have glitches and idiosyncrasies but I am amazed at how well it works. It is possible that something wrong with the old external hard drive was affecting the computer, OR could it be something in the software on the new hard drive has helped the old computer? Boggles my mind!
External hard drive with home computer
- Thread starter mspete1
- Start date
Okedokey
Well-Known Member
Hi and welcome Ms Pete.
Your thoughts are correct, and congratualations on sorting that out.
Windows does degrade over time, and most of us here will reinstall every 6 months to a year to absolutely be sure of no malware or issues. Its a good idea to have a seperate partition for files and your stuff to the partition (even on the same disk) as Windows. that way you can nuke windows at any time with little concern about your files.
You should always back this up. Id recommend CrashPlan or Carbonite as you really should have something offsite in case of the worst.
In terms of your question, yes, the HDD may have had issues causing windows to poll or interogate the drive in an endless loop. This can draw down on resources and consume a lot of CPU and RAM. Without knowing the rest of your system I'd say its worthwhile posting a post on our http://www.computerforum.com/224967-please-read-before-requesting-malware-removal-help.html area, follow the instructions and then let John review the logs. He will tell you if there is anything that needs updating.
Once that is done, come back here and we can help you update and polish off the performance.
Your thoughts are correct, and congratualations on sorting that out.
Windows does degrade over time, and most of us here will reinstall every 6 months to a year to absolutely be sure of no malware or issues. Its a good idea to have a seperate partition for files and your stuff to the partition (even on the same disk) as Windows. that way you can nuke windows at any time with little concern about your files.
You should always back this up. Id recommend CrashPlan or Carbonite as you really should have something offsite in case of the worst.
In terms of your question, yes, the HDD may have had issues causing windows to poll or interogate the drive in an endless loop. This can draw down on resources and consume a lot of CPU and RAM. Without knowing the rest of your system I'd say its worthwhile posting a post on our http://www.computerforum.com/224967-please-read-before-requesting-malware-removal-help.html area, follow the instructions and then let John review the logs. He will tell you if there is anything that needs updating.
Once that is done, come back here and we can help you update and polish off the performance.