Hard Disk Failure, computer crashing

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Angelboi, Sep 5, 2009.

  1. Angelboi

    Angelboi Private E-2

    So for a few weeks now my computer has had its slave hard drive 'fail'
    as in, a SMART event has occurred. I've been meaning to get it replaced, but I've noticed as of late,
    my computers performance is suffering, such as Computer crashes, computer freezing or just overall massive
    lag.

    I was wondering if my slave harddrive is related to the computer performance failure.

    I will be getting it replaced, but could the issues be related to something else? Because my OS is installed on the Master harddrive,
    so I don't understand why the performance would be suffering.

    Any ideas?
     
    Angelboi, Sep 5, 2009
    #1
  2. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Welcome to the forums :)

    Yes, a failing hard drive can make all data transfers slow as Windows only allows a fixed number of errors before progressively reducing the data transfer speeds; you'll probably need to remove the slave and set the hard drive controllers (in Device Manager) to use DMA transfer again.
     
    satrow, Sep 5, 2009
    #2
  3. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    It could be as I/O (input output) and the OS monitoring this all the time could affect performance, to check and make sure that the slave is the cause of your performance issues, pull the power and IDE/SATA cable from that drive and test.

    If the performance then goes ok, its the slave if not then I would be running this Basic computer maintenance everyone should do

    and also running some malware scanners to check that you are not infected.


    Also as you have a SMART error on that drive, I would advise starting to backup your important data off that drive now.


    EDIT: GMTA satrow
     
    DavidGP, Sep 5, 2009
    #3
  4. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    LOL @ Halo - I had to Google that acronym :)

    I've assumed you are using XP, Angelboi ;)
    And to fix it after you have pulled your data from and removed the failing drive
    DMA mode in XP.
     
    satrow, Sep 5, 2009
    #4
  5. Angelboi

    Angelboi Private E-2

    Thanks for the responses guys. I unplugged the 2nd HDD and it runs a lot smoother now. is there a way to fix the HDD or should I just buy a new one?
     
    Angelboi, Sep 6, 2009
    #5
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    If you have saved all your data from that drive, then using the makers diagnostic tools may help, and run the tests and also zero wipe the drive, could also use KillDisk to wipe the drive, then re-format it and run chkdsk on it, could work.

    But once you start getting SMART errors their will be alot of disk errors and that drive is really not stable enough to save critical files too as it will start to fail more, personally once I see SMART errors I destroy the drive so no data could be recovered and bin it.


    *depends on what make HDD you have if any are available but most of the popular ones like Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu etc are here in this list http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html
     
    DavidGP, Sep 6, 2009
    #6
  7. Angelboi

    Angelboi Private E-2

    It looks like I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.
    2 of them to be exact, both 500gb models.
     
    Angelboi, Sep 6, 2009
    #7

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