Slow xp sp3 in safe mode...hard drive?

Win XP SP3 suddenly very slow. Took about 9 hours to backup 130 GB. Programs take forever to start and windows leave shadows when closing. CPU usage spikes from 2-100% regularly, and seems to be consistent even in safe mode with networking. Total Commit Charge is running about 20% of Total Physical Memory, which I am told means its not a RAM problem. Ran malware tests and found nothing extraordinary. Since it is slow even in safe mode, am I correct in thinking it is a hardware issue? Nothing has been changed or added. How can I test hardware?

I attached the malware files in case it helps.

 

How large is the hard drive? You said it took about 9 hours to back up 130GB. Go to Start -> My Computer. Right click on the "C:\" drive and select Properties. In the general tab that comes up, see how much free space there is. If it's less than 30%, you need to get some files off of the drive.

 

I see from the RK report it's a Seagate 160. You definitely need to get more free space. After you've moved files off of the drive, run CCleaner in it's default settings to get rid of the junk files that are on it too.

 

Check the DMA settings for the drive controllers: http://winhlp.com/node/10

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/crystaldiskmark.html

Download this software and run a Sequential test

Put Settings like this: Change 5 to 1, Change 1000MB to 50MB, Keep the C drive as it is and hit the "Seq" button. This is a short test and will report the read/write speeds of your drive.

If your speed is about 10mb/sec or even less, then your drive is failing or starting to have bad sectors, a new drive is the best choice in this case.

 

I'm at 27% free space on my C drive. Read/Write speed is only 3.0/3.3 MB/s. Will look into DMA settings...

 

Hey,

It maybe an older pc im guessing considering you're running Xp, next logical step is possibly older hardware and drivers?

I would suggest using "Everest" this will tell you what hardware you have installed even manufacturer's make mistake in their documentation, as I found out the hardway. Everest solved a few issues like this over the years. Told me what was installed precisely and also solved things such as missing audio drivers as it told me what was on the motherboard and not the incorrect online manual, I digress.

once a hard drive gets approximately 40% full you will see a slow down in performance, I have noted this with some alarm, thinking a hardware issue but around 40% for some reason see a noticeable decreases in performance. Perhaps less obvious now days on drives with large cache ram.

If it is hardware related it maybe even the cpu under heat stress, thermal paste does need to be re-applied as it can dry and become less efficient.
If the cpu has speed step technology or similar if it becomes to hot, so it figures its under heavy load, then this may become a factor - even in safe mode.

Hopefully if your running serious mission critical data backups youll consider using a raid array and do incremental back ups, this is not only quicker but will save much time and hardware "wear and tear". Also raid can rebuild missing data if a drive should fail as typically more than one drive is used. I have heard of a partition raid system with using software raid but no just no... Use independent drives so you can sleep at night.

Oh, also if old system you may have faulty capacitors on motherboard, these regulate your power. Have a look see if you can see any bulges on top of the capacitors or any dreaded dark tea or coffee like stains on top. Perhaps even the power supply itself could be worth considering.


If you have a large page file on your hard drive this can also help in slowing down the system. For windows XP it was advised to have a page file approximately 3 times the size of system Ram.

As far as ram / memory goes, mismatched speeds and sizes can have issues on occasion.
If your mother board supports DDr ram ensure you're using the same speeds and sizes for best performance.

Also make sure all your vents and fans are clean while your at it, especially your cpu fan, ensure the heat sink isn't choked up with " dust fluff" it can act like insulation. While you're at it ensure motherboard doesn't have any spider web hair or other fine fibers shorting out to the case or other components just as good pc house keeping.

You may have a faulting expansion card or installed a new one which is causing issues. If still you suspect its hardware, typical way of testing for this, remove all expansion cards and replace them one at a time until the fault re-occur's.

If you think stuff it its not worth the time, I will just build a Raid array do a little research to see what type of raid set-up best suites your requirements. For optimal performance get sata drives with large onboard cache to help things along (16mb+)


If you're rich you could use solid state drives "SSD" =p. I figure finding drivers for XP would be a consideration worth researching first.

Anywho enough of my rant good luck in researching and 130gb is a fair amount of data to back up, esp on one drive. Don't forget Hard drives also have not only different amount of onboard cache ram, but also different rpm.

As a drive fills it typically writes closer to the centre of the spindle also reducing performance as data isn't read as fast from there.

There are some 3rd party defragmentation software that can let you select how to store data on your Hard drive. For quicker access, like regularly accessed files and windows files, data can be arranged on the outter edges of hard disk platter for quicker access. Something like ultimate disk defragger was what I used on XP.

Don't forget to research raid for data security / recovery if a drive fails. Also incremental backups to speed up the write time for backups, especially if these are to be done frequently. Will also help preserve hardware lifespan and minimize load time on cpu / ram and even your network if its an offsite backup

laters

 

Looks like a hard drive failure or plenty of bad sectors to me at this point.

Check the DMA Settings and if possible replace the data cables with known good ones.

To check for bad sectors I use the HDAT2 software which is found in the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ultimate_boot_cd_(ubcd).html)

To access HDAT2 go to HDD > Diagnosis.

 

Found that my Primary IDE controller was set to "DMA if available" but was in transfer mode "PIO Mode". Ran this and it reset to DMA and everything appears to be back to normal. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

Excellent news!

It's commonly caused by a scratched CD ... keep your optical drives empty