how to detect a bad hard drive?

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Rawmaterial

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I am restoring a computer for a friend. My problem is it takes hours to restore windows xp home. i have done the installtion before and it never took this long, do we need to purchase a new hard drive? thank you!
 
its a dell Dell Dimension 4550, not 100 percent sure but no more then 4 years old and no newer then a year.
 
i have installed xp on this computer previously, and it was quick!

another on another computer and it was quick.
 
I would check the mbr for viruses, i like to use Norton, then to be sure nothing is on the hdd, delete the partition, create a new one, format the hdd, not using a 'quick format' but actually sit and wait for it to do a full format, then install windows xp. if you don't have an anti-virus that will check the MBR then just skip that step. Also depending on the hdd size, it might take 20-60 minutes to format. I hade a 40 gb and it takes about 45 minutes.
 
I did everything you said there, and i did use a the "FULL FORMAT," the format takes about an hour i believe its a 40 gb harddrive. still very slow on installing the OS.

Thanks !
 
do you think it could be a over heating problem? or maybe the CPU might be defective, i waited the whole process out, of installing windows xp, and the mouse cursor lags like hell same with the typing in Computer name and organization.... ect ect.. thanks
 
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