Will adding new hard drive increase performance?

Over the last few months my computer has been slowing down. I have a Dell E510 desktop with windows XP. I run ccleaner, antivirus, and superantispyware. I have carbonite but have had that for awhile and never noticed any slow down from it.

My question is, can I increase performance to where it used to be by:
Adding a new hard drive, use my dell disks to install everything as original, make this new drive my master and then set the old drive to slave?

What do you think?
Thanks,
David

 

In theory yes, but why add a new HDD, why not just upgrade? I mean it will be problematic to run two drives, one master, one slave with XP on both wont it? Why not just install a new drive, or blank the old, or am I missing something? Also a lot of hassle using restore disks, I always install from an O/S disk direct. I find restore disks tend to be a hassle for various reasons, e.g. data it requires from the HDD, compatability probs (for no obvious reason) and so forth. Well my tuppence worth.

A clean install always speeds up a machine.

 

If all you want to do is increase perofmance to what it usd to be, you don't need to get a new hard drive , you could use the dell disks just as the system is as long as you have a place to temporarily backup your data while this operation takes place.

If you need more storage space AND want your computer running spiffy as new, then your plan will work.

How much memory does your system have?

 

Agreed with thebigd ... and another thing as bigd suggested ... RAM plays a big part in PC speed

 

My processor is a Processor, 80551, Pentium D Smithfield For Desktops, 820 2.8, BO, Server 2.6 Mhz, I have 2GB Ram and am running windows XP home.

The reason I said a new drive and keep the old one as a slave was that it would be the easiest, least time consuming or so I thought. I could load the operating system on the new drive and keep all my data / files on the old one. I currently have a 160 GB hard drive with only 31 GB free.

Plus, I don't know if dell gave me the operating system on discs. I think it may be some sort of restore discs. I'll have to check and see.

 

Check to see if your hard drive is 7200rpm. Some older machines used 5400rpm drives and changing to the faster ones gave a good speed increase.
Also check your startup list. Things could be running in the background without your knowledge causing a slowdown.

 

Thanks but I have checked that. Also regardless of what the speed of the hard drive currently is, it is a lot slower than it used to be.

 

What is on the startup list?
When did you last defrag?

 

It might be beneficial in a lot of ways to you to simply back up all of your data and to a clean, fresh install.

I'm in the process of doing one right now ... although mines because of an entire system upgrade ... I make it easier on myself but ... I have an External Docking Station, which means I can swap between my Programs, Documents etc drive and my Backup Drive ... On the Internal drive, I DO NOT have ANY documents, photos, music, downloads etc etc etc ... ALL of those bits of data that you would KEEP are on my External Drive, so when I go to do a fresh install, there IS no backing up, it's simply a matter of putting the disk in, formatting and reinstalling ... just a tip ...

So ... in that way, It might be beneficial to get a new drive, do a clean install on it and backup your personal data from the old one .. wipe the old one and then reload your personal data.

 

Thank you all for your replies.

I did notice (although it never affected it before) that turning off Carbonite increased performance to some noticeable degree. I have had Carbonite for awhile and never had this issue with it.

I think when I have the time I will buy a new hard drive and start from scratch. I am just dreading all those hours of re-installing programs and updating windows XP.

Thanks again