My issue on the HDD

[Aria abbasi]

Hi all,

I'm working on a XP machine. I think its slowness when installing apps (and also when its installation) is because of the HDD issue. Maybe there are bad sectors. I know that using C:\ drive properties -> tools, I can test the C: drive for bad sectors. But how to see the results!? It's wants me to restart the PC. Is there any log file after finishing of the test?
Is there any better way to find and solve the issue please?

The real problem is that, installing programs takes too (really too) much time to be installed. But the routine operations of the machine (opening installed programs, exploring in the Windows, etc) is almost fine.
I think the problem occurs only when I want to write on the HDD, for example, when installing an app which writes its files on the HDD.

 

[Solandri]

I'm working on a XP machine. I think its slowness when installing apps (and also when its installation) is because of the HDD issue. Maybe there are bad sectors. I know that using C:\ drive properties -> tools, I can test the C: drive for bad sectors. But how to see the results!? It's wants me to restart the PC. Is there any log file after finishing of the test?

That's normal when running chkdsk on your C: drive. It will reboot and run the test in text mode, and you can watch its results as it scans. If you want to see the results after, you should be able to find it in Event Viewer.

Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> Application -> chkdsk
(Note: I haven't used XP in so long I don't remember if Event Viewer is accessed the same way as Win 7.)

The real problem is that, installing programs takes too (really too) much time to be installed. But the routine operations of the machine (opening installed programs, exploring in the Windows, etc) is almost fine.
I think the problem occurs only when I want to write on the HDD, for example, when installing an app which writes its files on the HDD.

There are dozens of possible causes for those symptoms - failing HDD, fragmened HDD, virus, insufficient RAM, for XP it may have been too long since your last reboot, etc. Too much to go over in a single post so let's try the most likely causes.

Since you say existing programs run fine, my first guess would be the HDD is nearly full and/or is badly fragmented. However, a failing HDD is more serious so let's eliminate that first. Install CrystalDiskInfo and make sure it reports the drive is healthy.
http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying

If it's not healthy, back up all your data ASAP, then report back to us.

If it is healthy, how full is the drive? For SSDs you should aim to keep about 15%-25% of the drive empty. For HDDs aim for about 10% free. Once you drop below these thresholds, you should begin deleting unneeded files, moving files to external storage, or replace the drive with a bigger one.

Once you've got at least 15% free space (25% is better), try defragmenting the drive. Unfortunately Windows XP's built-in defragmenter is really bad, but you can use it to analyze the drive and see if you have a fragmentation problem.
http://www.wikihow.com/Defragment-a-Windows-XP-Computer
(Skip to method 2 of 3, click the Analyze button. Don't click the Defragment button unless you have about 50% or more free disk space.)

If the analysis says you have a bad fragmentation problem, then try installing and running one of these defragment tools.
http://lifehacker.com/5854427/five-best-disk-defragmentation-tools

 

[popatim]

You can review the chkdsk log in windows event viewer in the application section after it completes and boots into windows.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/17209-45-locating-check-disk-error

 

[fzabkar]

Hard drives typically develop "weak" heads before they die completely.

You can test your drive for "slow" sectors by running a full surface scan with tools such as HDDScan (Windows) or MHDD (DOS, better). Slow sectors are those that require one or more read retries. Both tools will report the actual times required to access difficult sectors. Most other tools will just provide a pass-or-fail result.

 

[Aria abbasi]

Thank you all very much.
The HDD is as defective that almost no app can test it until end. It may take days to be finished. So I think its being died. I don't know is there any way to repair it using hardware tools or not. Is there?
Or I have to replace it?