windows slowing down

[heythatsmybike]

been a while since i've done anything with computers, and this really has me stumped. my old man recently got a new computer so he gave me his old one. it was full of crap that i didn't care about so decided to format and give it a fresh copy of windows. i originaly tried vista, and then xp either way it is still giving me headaches and not sure if it actually comes down to windows at all. problem is, boot from cd and computer recognises it, after that everything seems to be processing at 1% or something. evey step has a 10-15 minute waiting period even after format. fresh installation and no matter what it takes windows over 40 minutes to load up... anyone got any ideas on why?

 

[johnb35]

My bet is a bad hard drive. Do a diagnostic on it. Or possibly a wrong setting in the bios.

 

[heythatsmybike]

should probably add in also that i'm pretty sure everything was running hunky dory before hand, and i'm pretty sure i didn't change any bios settings. i'll check to see if it's the haddrive when i get home. if the rest of the computer specs could help in the problem, i'll post them up when i finish work.