Can slowing PC be caused by hard drive?

[amoses]

My Dell inspiron 1300 worked great for about one year then got slower and slower and slower. I reformated it and it worked OK for a few months then got slower again. When I reformat now it does not make much difference at all. Could this be caused by a hard drive going bad? I don't get why it does not work better if I restore it to original factory condition. I was going to buy a new hard drive and see if that fixed it. Is there something else I should try first?

amoses

 

[Lexluethar]

If the programs are the same, and the hardware is the same, and the computer is still slower after a format then look at the hard drive possibly going bad.

If you are using different programs a year ago then you do now, the newer programs / games could be taxing the system too much and you may need more RAM, or a faster processor / gpu.

 

[amoses]

If I decide to replace the hard drive how do I go about formating the new one (i did not recieve discs, the format program is built into the current hard drive in hidden files)?

amoses

 

[Nukem]

you can get a Hard drive clone program and make an exact copy of your drive...

this was on the MG forum

|MG| Partition Logic 0.69
|MG| Acronis True Image Home 2009 12 Build 9709 (not free)
|MG| DriveImage XML 2.02
|MG| EaseUs Disk Copy 2.3
http://www.majorgeeks.com/HDClone_Fr...ion_d3809.html
|MG| SelfImage 1.2.1 build 92
And there's plenty more in the Back Up section here at Major Geeks. Norton Ghost is the best hard drive imaging app that I've used, but it isn't cheap...

 

[amoses]

I reformatted the original hard drive again and installed more memory (2 Gig) and it seems to be doing pretty good now. I downloaded the free version of AVG. We will see how long it lasts. I just need a good but inexpensive replacement battery now, if anyone knows of a reliable source.

thanks for the help

amoses

 

[Lexluethar]

I usually get my laptop batteries from the manufacturer of the laptop. As long as the battery is rated / made for a particular model of laptop you should be okay. I just stear away from off brand batteries because all i hear about is recalls and batteries exploding. So that is the one part on a computer I usually just get from the manf.

 

[Atech66]

Also look at your tool bar and see how much is on start up.
If you installed the same software it may be faster for a bit with a clean install
and over time and with too many backround programs running it will be as slow as it was.
start/run/msconfig check start up but make sure you know what your unchecking if you do not recognize it do not uncheck it.. but for example Qtask, AIM, etc unchecking it won't hurt anything the program is there just won't run all the time you can manually run it this has done wonders for some people. along with a good defrag and if your not registry savvy then "ccleaner" is free and can remove old registry entries and explorer files and i have used it on XP and Vista systems and its proven safe for me.

 

[amoses]

Thanks to everyone, I appreciate the help.

amoses

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Before thinking it is the hard drive, it could easily be the processor overheating and throttling... Try blasting the heatsink out with canned air if you can with power removed from the system.