New hard drive making computer run slow?

[Dale_J]

My hard drive broke a couple of months ago, so to tide me over I used a small SSD so I could still access the internet etc. I bought and installed a 2tb hard drive yesterday but thought I might as well keep the ssd with the OS as it was booting up quite rapid, thinking I could use the hard drive for my games etc.

Since I installed this new hard drive my computer has been running painfully slow, anything installed on the hard drive (eg. Steam) is prone to not responding etc. I tried a clean install of it but the problem persists.

I used the SATA cable connected to the disc drive as I wasn't supplied one with the new hdd.

I have a basic knowledge of computers so I hope I've just overlooked something.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Dale_J,

I would advise you to start with something basic as just swapping the SATA cables as well as the ports. Make sure the HDD is connected to a SATA 3 port not SATA 2. You can check that in the MOBO manual.
Also, the drives are set to AHCI in BIOS right?
If the problem persists, it will be a good thing to test the drive with a brand specific testing software.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Dale_J]

Hi there Dale_J,

I would advise you to start with something basic as just swapping the SATA cables as well as the ports. Make sure the HDD is connected to a SATA 3 port not SATA 2. You can check that in the MOBO manual.
Also, the drives are set to AHCI in BIOS right?
If the problem persists, it will be a good thing to test the drive with a brand specific testing software.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Thank you for your quick reply, I was out at the time so only just got a chance to have a mess around.

I only have 2 SATA 3 ports on my MOBO, one which my SSD with the OS is on, and the other which the new HDD is connected to. The drive mode was set to IDE, however when I changed it to AHCI my computer wouldn't boot anymore.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Then you can just change it back to IDE. Then you can check what out the brand of your HDD and test it with a brand specific tool. Most of the HDD manufacturers have tools that will show the health status of the HDD.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Dale_J]

I changed it back IDE, that helped it boot up again. I ran dskchk, theres a bad sector, I uninstalled all the programs I had prior to finding this out and found I was left with a 'steam' folder that I couldn't delete.

Could this bad sector be slowing everything down ? The dskchk didn't repair the bad sector.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Yes, bad sectors could be slowing everything down.
If the chkdsk found a bad sector on a brand new hard drive I would suggest you to contact the HDD's manufacturer Support and eventually RMA the drive.
Apart from that, uninstalling programs will not "cure" the bad sectors. You should try reformatting the drive. This may help for a while. Once a bad sector appear, eventually more of them will continue to appear.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Dale_J]

Thanks for your help, I will contact toshiba, it still has a manufacturers warranty.