How to Fix a Slow Hard Drive

Of all of the components that make up your computer, the hard disk drive is the one most important single component that requires the most attention and maintenance.

It is in constant use and is responsible for all communication with the CPU, saving data, storing data and retrieving data like a mad thing possessed and, if it is not maintained properly it will rebel big style and you'll you'll end up with a very slow computer due entirely to a slow hard drive.

There are magnetic platters inside the hard drive and these are in an almost continous spinning motion. The heads inside the hard drive which are responsible for both reading and writing data to the disk flutter at a mind boggling speed across the platter surface.

Over time, the hard disk is subjected to a number of CPU processes that modify and add all sorts of data that is stored on the drive and this data gets amazingly fragmented.

Maintaining your hard drive in good order is more important than many people realise and if you have ever suffered from degraded hard drive and have lost data you will understand why.

Hard disk defragmentation is just one of the services we offer as part of our annual remote computer maintenance package which is only £9.99 per month including unlimited computer support 24 hours a day 7 days a week.   

So What Does This Mean in Plain English?

Imagine that your hard drive is like one big filing cabinet. All of the files are neatly arranged in there relevent folders and the files you need to use most of the time are conveniently all placed in the top drawer where they are easiest to get at.

If you then need to retrieve a file (or even a number of files for that matter) they are all nicely grouped together in the same folder so it takes only a second or two to find exactly what you are looking for. That is in effect how a clean defragmented hard drive should be.

Now imagine that every time you needed to put these files away again you were not allowed to put them back where you originally found them, but you just opened draws and stuffed the files anywhere you could find a gap. The next time you needed the same files you would have to play find a needle in the haystack and open all the drawers and folders to find them so rather than getting them all from the same place.

Now if you multiply the above by the number of times you access your hard drive in a day (let alone the length of time it has been since you purchased your computer) and you'll quickly understand how a fragmented hard drive becomes a very slow hard drive and can easily bring even the fastest computer to a grinding halt.

Defragmenting a Hard Drive

Fortunately having thrown all of your data onto your hard drive in a random manner you are then able to tidy it up again with some easy to use system tools commonly known as  hard disk defragmentation utilities.

Windows operating system comes with its own defragmenter but this is only a cut down version of a proper defragmentation utility and is a one hit almost barbaric affair. The plus point is that it is free but depending on the size of your hard drive and its condition defragmentation can take many hours and you may only see a marginal improvement in your computers speed.

Most Pc enthusiasts and specialist that understand how their computers work favour performance utilities such as Diskeeper as this can help avoid the need for harddrive replacement. 

Another plus for keeping drive fragmantation to a minimum is if you are unfortunate enough to suffer from a hard drive failure or a degraded drive, hard drive recovery will put less strain on a failing drive as the data is well sorted, where a fragmented drive could bring on drive failure resulting in the need for hard drive repair.

Hard Drive Failure

Another reason for a slow hard drive could in fact be the early warning signs of a potential hard drive failure. Hard drives can fail even if only a few months old although in reality the older a drive is, the harder it has been worked and if it is massively fragmented then the greater the chance of a failure.

Another indicator as well as the hard drive being slow is unexplained data loss. A file that you knew was there can no longer be found or files won't open and are corrupted. These are good indicators of hard drive degradation and if your hard disk is exhibiting these types of symptoms be sure to back up your essential data straight away either to an external drive or to an online backup program. 

If you do suspect that you have a faulty drive or your drive is emmiting and type of strange noise then mechanical failure could be on the cards, so avoid putting your drive under any strain until your essential data is secure, this includes running a defragmentation program until your data is safe. 

Solid State Drives

Another alternative technology that is coming to the fore for storing data is of course Solid State Drives or SSD's as they are known for short. These do not work in the traditional way so don't suffer from fragmentation problems, but there are other important considerations that need to be taken into account with these device's. 

How to Fix a Slow Hard Drive

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