Slow Hard Drive Performance. Any reccomendations appreciated!

[Dalandlord]

I have a less than a year old Samsung Series 7 Chronos with an i7Q CPU and nearest I can tell a Samsung ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB Hard Drive and 8 gigs of RAM. I am a business user who does more scanning and document storage than anything else. Right after buying the computer we had an urgent issue that required a lot of attention and before I got everything setup and using the computer the return period was gone. It quickly became evident that what was supposed to a very fast computer has a lag problem. I have done a variety of scans and there is no evidence of malware on the machine.

I constantly wait for this computer on routine tasks. I check out Task Manager and it reports things like I am using 15-20 CPU, maybe 35% Memory, and Disk will be max out at 100% for a while and the computer will respond when the disk % starts coming down, I am thinking an accountant made the decision on which drive to put in this computer.

Am I correct in assuming the most likely solution to this problem is to chuck the hard drive in the trash, or give it to somebody I don't like, and buy fast one? I am covered under some type of tech support from Best Buy/Geek Squad and they say they will do the labor free even if I don't buy the new drive from them. So I guess my questions are:

1. Is changing the drive the best solution?

2. If so, any recommendations on a new FAST drive? I don't want to throw money away, but in no way do I want to go through all the trouble of an upgrade and say I wish I wouldn't have save that $50-$100.

3. Should I let Geek Squad do the labor or is there any issues with them that I may just want to find the time and do it all myself. I know I will most likely have to do the partitioning and software installs myself anyway.

I haven't kept up much with latest developments in drive technology as far as SSD, and hybrid drives so any guidance is greatly appreciated. I believe there is only drive bay, so going with one SSD and one ordinary drive is not an option. I just need a more responsive computer with reasonable data security as I tend to only backup my files about once a month but if I save something critical I do it that day. I can do that more often if I went to an SSD if needed, but if I said I was going to do it for often than once a week or so I would be kidding myself.

Thanks Guys

 

[popatim]

If you can afford an SSD that is large enough to meet your needs (you didnt mention how big a drive you need) then there wont be many times you will be waiting for it.

Alternately, your drive is probably a 5400rpm drive and simply upgrading to a 7200 will be a nice boost but still nothing close to ssd speeds.

hybrids are decent but the 8gb of ssd space is used solely to cache frequently used files. Windows and a few apps will load really quick and everything else will use the 5400 rpm hdd part of the drive.

Something you can try,change the power plan to high performance (many laptops drop performance levels when on battery to conserve power) or in windows advanced power plan settings - change the time that the hard disk turns off to a longer period or never

1: probably.
2: Samsung 840 Evo (SSD) / WD Caviar Black (HDD) {there are certainly other choices, these are just what I've seen at my BB so I know they're stocked}
3: Depends on your Geeks. My Geeksquad is horrid.

ALWAYS keep important files on more than one device; Even if you have to spend $70 and get a 128Gb flash drive to have a 2nd copy.

 

[Dalandlord]

If you can afford an SSD that is large enough to meet your needs (you didnt mention how big a drive you need) then there wont be many times you will be waiting for it.

Alternately, your drive is probably a 5400rpm drive and simply upgrading to a 7200 will be a nice boost but still nothing close to ssd speeds.

hybrids are decent but the 8gb of ssd space is used solely to cache frequently used files. Windows and a few apps will load really quick and everything else will use the 5400 rpm hdd part of the drive.

Something you can try,change the power plan to high performance (many laptops drop performance levels when on battery to conserve power) or in windows advanced power plan settings - change the time that the hard disk turns off to a longer period or never

1: probably.
2: Samsung 840 Evo (SSD) / WD Caviar Black (HDD) {there are certainly other choices, these are just what I've seen at my BB so I know they're stocked}
3: Depends on your Geeks. My Geeksquad is horrid.

ALWAYS keep important files on more than one device; Even if you have to spend $70 and get a 128Gb flash drive to have a 2nd copy.

Thanks so much popatim!

Okay the SSD it is.

At the risk of exposing my ignorance, can you, or anyone else qualified, give me some guidance on a few issues. I see the Samsung 840 Evo comes in SATA III and mSATA III. How do I know which one I need? or will they both work just one a little faster?

I currently have a 1TB drive which more than I need. Can I migrate all my software and Data and setup to a new drive with migration software so I don't have to partition and reinstall everything? And if so does it have to be the same size drive, or can I go down to a 750GB or 500GB? I did notice the mSATA III only comes in 500GB or 1TB so if I need that one I may just stay with the 1TB anyway. I'd like to keep the project under about $500 if I can, but I need more speed no matter what as what I have now is driving me crazy.

My geek squad people told me to call Samsung and get an original drive image. So if they do it I have to reinstall everything or just tell them to put the drive in and I'll take it from there.

As for backup I purchased 2) 1TB portable drives and plan to back up to one of them once a week and if anything is critical right away, then about once a month swap it with the other drive I leave at another site, just in case of a fire or burglary, etc. Hopefully I will stay with that regimen as I am compliant for a few day now. I just copy all my files over when I do it because it seems simpler than backup software. 1TB on a backup device sounds like I can leave several generations of files on each device. Is there any reason I should be doing any other type of backup?


Thanks again Guys

 

[popatim]

The Chronos 7 came is several configurations, to help in greater detail we will need the exact model number to know which configuration you have.

Having restore disks or an original drive image is very important in my opinion. You should always have a way to reinstall for when the SSD/HDD fails.

 

[Dalandlord]

Popatim if they made the model and serial number any smaller on this thing I would have needed a microscope to read it. It is a model:NP780Z5E-S01UB It is the one with no optical drive at all. So if you want to recommend any particular external optical drive feel free to do that too. It would be easier to load software that was instead of downloading everything anyway. I intended to buy one when I bought the laptop but just never got to it. I just figured I would just as soon have an external one so it would be lighter since I rarely need it at all and never on the road.

Thanks again.