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My computer is suffering of slow-downs and I'm not surprised (it's around 6 years old). Here's what I've verified:
- They are not very frequent (only a couple of times a day).
- When they happen a single application will hang for 10-60 seconds, while the rest don't hang but also get slow.
- Even as it is happening, the CPU usage stays low.
- It happens to applications (such as text editor, firefox, skype).
- It never happens to some applications (such as games) which I use for hours under heavy CPU load.
Also of note:
- The Graphics card and PSU are new (around a year).
- Though I have a decent amount of software installed right now, this was happening even right after I reinstalled Windows.
- This HDD has been through many partinioning schemes, and a few heavy operations (such as moving around 200GB of data).
Because of the above, I am already 70% sure the problem is with the hard drive. Before I replace it, however, I want to rule out other less likely possibilities (such as RAM, software, or PSU).
I don't have the money to replace the entire box right now, but I can easily replace one of the components.
I've read several questions (such as this one) which give general guidance on troubleshooting an unknown issue, that is not what I'm looking for here.
My main question is:
What tests or benchmarks can I run to verify I have a problematic hard drive?
I don't need to solve this problem, I am content with just making sure it's the
hard drive.
I could borrow a newer hard drive from a friend and see if it gets better. A positive result would rule out all other components, but it wouldn't rule out a software issue (since this new hard drive won't have any of the software I use daily).
Running on Windows/Linux.
Defragmentation perhaps? – noɥʇʎԀʎzɐɹƆ – 2016-06-21T22:24:42.897
2As it stands this question is MUCH too vague. What specifically have to tried already, and where are you getting stuck? There's no way for us to tell you how to be 100% confident in your diagnosis. If you want to test a replacement drive, get a hard drive and duplicate your drive onto it. You can find out how to do that searching here on SU. Or take it to someone who can do it for you (like a computer shop). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-06-29T23:34:48.663
If you are just looking for a list of HDD Diagnostics software, please clarify that by editing your question, and include a list of which ones you've tried already, and why the many related questions on SU were of no help. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-06-29T23:39:16.020
1Regarding your last paragraph: if diagnostics don't report any problems with the hard drive but you want to confirm that the new drive exhibits the same issue, you can clone your drive's contents onto a new one--in which case, you will have the same software on both drives. – rob – 2012-06-29T23:45:30.600
@techie007 I am looking for anything that verifies the HDD is getting old. Yes, HDD diagnostic is one thing (and I haven't tried any yet). – Malabarba – 2012-06-30T00:03:29.987
Hard drive life monitor?, Detecting/diagnosing drive “pauses”. Any good tools out there?, How to check the health of a hard drive, What is the best hardware diagnostic for a PC – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-06-30T00:16:57.440
1@techie007 The answers to those questions you linked to don't seem to be very comprehensive... :\ – Deltik – 2012-06-30T00:30:41.353
@Deltik Just because they are not "comprehensive" doesn't mean they aren't asking the same thing. The op's question is "What tests or benchmarks can I run to verify I have a problematic hard drive?" How is that question different from the ones I've listed there? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-06-30T01:13:26.870
@techie007 I still think that Bruce did the right thing. See here: http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/138198/188803
– Deltik – 2012-06-30T01:15:41.3601@techie007 I tried clarifying what you asked for in my edit. I hadn't tried any tools before asking this question, I didn't even know any, and SU is usually my first stop when tackling something I don't know :). I did search around first, but I hadn't found any of those questions because I was restricting the search to the [troubleshoot] and [hard-drive] tags (which seemed to me like the bare minimum). – Malabarba – 2012-06-30T01:35:26.877