Computer slowing to a crawl.

[Chellexelle]

So my computer seems to be getter slower every day. It concerns the Windows OS drive which is giving me lower and lower read/write speeds which have been between 2-4 MB/s and slows every program down when I am zipping data or downloading files.

CrystalDiskInfo is reporting the drive as "Good" and shows no errors that I can see. The drive isn't making any weird noises nor is Windows giving me any errors indicating corrupted data or bad sectors. The drive is a Seagate Barracuda 750GB and is 7-8 years old.

I thought about viruses but I am very careful about that sort of thing. I don't install pirated games or software. I don't install shady looking software and I only visit the same 3 porn sites.

So what could be causing these performance issues and is my current drive trustworthy?

CrystalDiskInfo:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (2) ST3750640AS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : ST3750640AS
        Firmware : 3.CHN
   Serial Number : 5QD4RMQN
       Disk Size : 750.1 GB (8.4/137.4/750.1/----)
     Buffer Size : 16384 KB
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 1465149168
   Rotation Rate : Unknown
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ATA/ATAPI-7
   Minor Version : ----
   Transfer Mode : ---- | SATA/300
  Power On Hours : 43180 hours
  Power On Count : 454 count
     Temperature : 41 C (105 F)
   Health Status : Good
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., 48bit LBA, NCQ
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : ----

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 253 __6 000000000000 Read Error Rate
03 _93 _92 __0 000000000000 Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 __0 00000000024C Start/Stop Count
05 100 100 _36 000000000000 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 _86 _60 _30 000019D7F38C Seek Error Rate
09 _51 _51 __0 00000000A8AC Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 _97 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C 100 100 _20 0000000001C6 Power Cycle Count
B8 100 253 _97 000000000000 End-to-End Error
BB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
BD 100 100 _45 000000000000 High Fly Writes
BE _59 _48 __0 00002A190029 Airflow Temperature
C2 _41 _52 __0 000D00000029 Temperature
C3 _61 _57 __0 000000D76189 Hardware ECC recovered
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
C8 100 253 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate
CA 100 253 __0 000000000000 Data Address Mark Error

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
        0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
000: 0C5A 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 3551 4434 524D 514E 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020
020: 0000 8000 0004 332E 4348 4E20 2020 5354 3337 3530
030: 3634 3041 5320 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 0000 2F00
050: 4000 0200 0200 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0010
060: FFFF 0FFF 0000 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 0506 0000 0048 0048
080: 00FE 0000 3069 7C01 4023 3069 BC01 4023 203F 0000
090: 0000 FEFE 0000 0000 D000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: 66F0 5754 0000 0000 0000 0000 4000 0000 0000 0000
110: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401E
120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 66F0
130: 5754 66F0 5754 2020 0002 0AB6 0002 008A 3C7B 0304
140: 0000 07C6 0100 0800 1314 3000 0002 0080 0000 0000
150: 0080 0202 0000 0404 0000 0000 0000 0000 1200 000B
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0035 0000 0000 0000
210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 BCA5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 0A 00 01 0F 00 64 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 02
010: 00 5D 5C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 64 64 4C
020: 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 33 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 0F 00 56 3C 8C F3 D7 19 00 00 00 09 32
040: 00 33 33 AC A8 00 00 00 00 00 0A 13 00 64 64 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 33 00 64 64 C6 01 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B8 33 00 64 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 3A
070: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BD 22 00 64 64 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BE 22 00 3B 30 29 00 19 2A 00
090: 00 00 C2 1A 00 29 34 29 00 00 00 0D 00 00 C3 12
0A0: 00 3D 39 89 61 D7 00 00 00 00 C5 10 00 64 64 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 3E 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C7 00 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C8 32
0D0: 00 64 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CA 00 00 64 FD 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 82 19 B1 01 00 5B
170: 03 00 01 B2 02 FB 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 08 08 08 08 08 06 08 08 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FF 19 13 2E B2 02 00 00
1A0: 01 00 DD FA F5 C8 77 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 FF 19 13 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 12 F3 51 19 00
1D0: 00 00 7D 3C F5 02 00 00 00 00 7A A8 00 00 00 00
1E0: 7F B7 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 F4

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 0A 00 01 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 1E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 61 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B8 61 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BD 2D 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BE 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C3 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C8 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CA 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21

 

[timta2]

It's possible that the drive has internal problems which don't show up in the S.M.A.R.T. status. 7-8 years of normal use (43180 hours is like 5 years of 24/7 power on hours) is good mileage on a hard drive. The surefire way to know is to replace it, even with something temporary or borrowed.

 

[Delitus]

A 'good' S.M.A.R.T status is not a reliable indicator of drive health. I have had a drive which capped itself to < 1MB/s writes, with all the S.M.A.R.T attributes checking out fine. I would consider backing up all data as soon as possible and replacing your hard drive at this point. As mentioned already, 7-8 years is a solid run for a hard disk.

 

[AlienTech]

NO Reallocated Sectors Count? I think the drive firmware is not very good. I have had a seagate 1TB drive fail with 1 reallocated count and doing a firmware upgrade and running seagate tools for long drive check to map it out got it to no reallocted sector count. Until one day it just gave up and would nto read anything. Keep checking the smart values see if any of them keep going up. it could also be the cable and maybe compatability problems. The drive might work on another system. I once took a dvd writer back because it would not recognize the disk. But it worked on their system. So I took it back home and set it as slave and it started working. As master it would not work. But it did work as master on their system. I am still using a seagate 160GB sata drive as a boot drive backup. Its over a decade old.. Smart shows no problems so I think the older seagate drives dont really use the smart values. It only had like 25k hours on it and I originally only used it as a boot drive. Its very slow compared to recent drives. Less than 50mb read/write..

 

[dangerouseddy]

could be a lot of weak sectors on the drive that its having to retry, that would slow it to a crawl.

 

[Ultima99]

Could just be its time to go like others suggest, but also how old is your Windows install?

It could be a format and reinstall does a world of good.

 

[AlienTech]

could be a lot of weak sectors on the drive that its having to retry, that would slow it to a crawl.

If true that would have increased the reallocated sector count as well as the hardware ecc..

So either the smart does not work or its something else causing the problem. I would stick with a compatibility problem. Might work fine on another system or a USB bridge so try in an external USB case..