[SOLVED] My two hard drives have very low Passmark ratings

[jbclem]

On my WinXP core2 computer, I have two hard drives. A Seagate 160gb drive (ST3160318AS ) and a WD enterprise 500 gb drive (WD5002ABYS).
My computer has been acting very slow recently, long boot times, other actions taking forever. I ran the Passmark Performance software and the Seagate 160gb drive got a Disk Mark result (aprox 23) 1/20th that of the next lowest drive in the baseline list. I have a Disk Mark rating for this same drive done in 2016 and it was almost the same (aprox 400) as the lowest drive in the baseline list. So two years ago it was working normally, and the computer boot times used to be 35-65 seconds and now are around 150+ seconds.

The WD enterprise 500 gb drive just had a Disk Mark result of 1/7th that of a comparable WD 500 gb drive in the baseline list.

Both drives passed tests using Seagate Seatools software. Both drives had decent SMART values as shown in the SpeedFan software testing.

I'm wondering if I may have changed a setting somewhere in the computer or OS configuration that has caused this huge slowdown? I'd appreciate some ideas and suggestions about troubleshooting this slowdown.

John

 

[geofelt]

Check the drive properties to enable write cacheing.

Really, though, it is time to upgrade at least your C drive to a ssd.
Samsung has a nice ssd migration app to move your C drive to one of their ssd's.
A 240gb Samsung 860 EVO is $60 or so. $82 for 500gb.

 

[jbclem]

It was a good idea, but write caching was enabled on both hard drives. Thanks for the mention of the ssd migration app, do you know if it will migrate the OS (WinXP) only? And the 860 EVO was the one I was thinking of buying.

 

[geofelt]

It is a C drive mover, not a bit for bit clone.
Yes, it will move windows XP sp2 32 bit.
You can exclude data folders from the move.
You can download the app and user manual here:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

 

[jbclem]

Since my boot up WinXP is on E drive I'm probably out of luck with this software. Is there a program that will allow me to migrate the OS only, or if necessary the E drive?

I'm still looking for a solution the the hard drive(s) slow down if anyone has another suggestion.

 

[geofelt]

When you boot from the XP drive, I think it will be known as the "C" drive and the utility should run.
Reading the manual, I think that two drives may not be a problem.
It is worth a try since the source drives remain unchanged.