HDD

[securespark]

Hi guys

In the general running speed of a PC, how important a part does the HDD play?

I ask because Mrs Secure's old Dell Optiplex GX50 (with upgrade to max memory) is struggling so much now it is painful, not to say frustrating, to wait so long for it to process information. Plus, it regularly crashes and sometimes, you click an icon to open, say IE, then it forgets and you have to click again...

Would it be possible, as a quick (if only temporary) fix, just to plug the old HDD into another machine with vastly more memory and a faster more uo to date chipset? Or would it still be dinosaur-like? The more permanent fix would be to buy a i3-based lappy, but until then, if I could cobble together something a little less recent, but newer than the GX50 that would run a bit faster, that would be good. We have run all the anti-virus, trojan, etc software packages and all is clear.

My personal feeling is it would be much better but not top-notch. Is that accurate?

Or am I talking techo-b@lls?

Thanks.

 

[EddieM]

Of course it plays an important role, but generally more memory and faster CPU will be just as if not more important.. however, it sounds like ur hard disk maybe on its way out.

"We have run all the anti-virus, trojan, etc..." may well be slugging the system, disconnect from the internet, try turning all these things off, along with windows update, apple itunes updates, and any other auto-updating software, and try that see if it makes any difference. (obviously not Internet related stuff)

Don't forget to turn all AV, etc stuff back on again though after seeing if it makes a difference.

 

[wingcoax]

Hi Secure, i presume you have done the usual 'clean ups' like de fragging and disc clean up? If you put items into folders it does tend to speed things up a bit as they do not try and run on start up.

 

[joinerjohn]

As Wingcoak says, defragmenting the HDD might help. If Mrs Sec, has important files on her computer, I'd suggest copying these up to an external HDD then, deleting them off the internal HDD. That way you'd be freeing up space on the HDD. As the HDD becomes full of crap, seek times do become longer when accessing programs/data on the HDD.
If there's nothing of importance on the HDD you could either do a factory reset, or contemplate loading a Linux based OS. I use Ubuntu 11.04 and the computer starts within 30 seconds and is certainly a lot faster than Win XP (my old OS)

 

[^woody^]

It will play a big role in overall speed if it is one of the old 5400rpm units rather than a faster 7200

Also despite defragging and disk clean ups, a windows machine will always get slower with age and use, as programs and fonts have been installed, and services registered, and all these get loaded by the OS and just slow the machine right down

The best, and probably only thing to do with an older machine is to determine what programs you really need, and then format the drive, and reinstall the OS and the basic minimum of programs

 

[securespark]

Thanks guys. If the current HDD was stuffed into one of these ( http://www.ebuyer.com/259486-extra-value-usb-2-0-hard-drive-enclosure-for-3-5-sata-drives-up-cs672 ), and accessed via another computer (her new lappy, for example) would she be able to access everything as before?

 

[ICTRich]

As long as it is a SATA drive. If the PC is old, it could be a PATA drive (parallel) Pop open the case and have a look to see what it is. If it is not written on it, you will be able to tell from the connecting cable. Useful links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

 

[^woody^]

If you are going to reuse the drive as external storage, then the best thing would be to set up the HD in it's new enclosure and connect to the host PC, move the files you need (my documents. pictures etc) to a temp folder on the host PC, then format the external HD to remove all the crap and free up space, and then move the files back.

If you have a premium version of windows, then encrypt the external drive with Bitlocker for security

My only concern with using old drives for storage, is that having already been used for years they are already part worn and whist they can last for a long time, I would not rely on them for the sole storage place for important stuff

 

[empip]

http://tinyurl.com/c4xwl89
Docking station is useful.
Have used same for accessing files on several HDDs, laptop and desktop, also works fine with cd/dvd w, rw drives, a very useful piece of kit.
Not of course the type of thing to leave with HDD attached.

-0-

 

[securespark]

Cheers chaps.

Some very helpful stuff here.

Sure it is parallel from memory. Old Dell PC, Optiplex GX50, sure to be.

In the "good old days" when all drives were PATA, you could hook up an old HDD to a new PC as a secondary so as to be able to access the files. With a modern MB, you wouldn't be able to do that any more would you?

 

[neallew]

new MB's no longer have the old connections for ide drives just sata ports. So you have to mount in a drive bay of some description. Once you have done this it will be all available to search any data or files but you wont be able to run any programs off the old disk. So will have to hunt through for any data or save games and move to the relavant folder on the new drive with the old programs if any needed/installed on new computer.
The old drive might be usefull as a 3rd backup of some data but best to copy all data onto a new 3.5 drive in a portable usb housing - they are cheap and well over 100gb drives are avail resonably priced.

 

[EFCLee1]

Nobody has mentioned SSD - Sold State Drive

This is thee biggest performance upgrade you can do on a PC!!

Yer sure upgrading memory and or faster CPU would be a vast improvement but throw in an SSD would give you the boggest margin of increased performance, heres how you do it.....

Buy a 30Gig\40Gig OCZ Vertex 2 off ebay, 30-45 pound, any bigger will obviously cost you more money hence the size, Windows is installed to this SSD and ONLY!!! windows, all files and documents need to be stored elsewhere on a SATA drive....

A helpful tweak is to dump your PAGE FILE onto the SATA, disable HIBERNATION and disable SYSTEM RESTORE

I got a Windows 7 install down to 7.5 Gig this way

Good luck!!!!

 

[securespark]

Thanks for the posts, guys.

Things have come to a bit of a head today....

As I have been sat here, Mrs Secure's PC has gone up in smoke...

So I've isolated the mains & opened up the case. The HDD seems enclosed in a green plastic case, not sure if it can be extracted.

Has anybody worked on these before?

I think the MOBO has burnt out. What I'd like to do as a temp. fix is to whack the HDD in another PC so at least she can access the files.

 

[Monkeh]

Show us a picture, but I'm pretty certain it'll be a normal HDD inside.

 

[securespark]

Thanks, Monkeh, give us a mo and I'll stick one up. Cheers.

EDIT:

Thanks. I've worked it out.

It was the PC equivalent of opening my Skoda bonnet and being confronted with a sea of plastic covering everything. The HDD was swathed in green plastic.

Now I've found it!

Cheers.