My Windows 8 has slowed down. Is External HDD turned Internal HDD be the problem?

Rohidroid

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Jan 19, 2014
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Hello.. I have two HDDs.. they are
1. Hitachi HDT725032VLAT80 ATA (Internal)
2. Seagate Expansion Desk 2TB (External)
So recently, my friend gave me his External 500GB Seagate GoFlex HDD (Which has a detachable back) and its port got faulty. So I removed the detachable part and saw the sata cable port, so i installed it as my internal HDD.. All went well.. but recently. my windows is taking time to load.. It went from 30 seconds to 1 minute and 10 seconds.. I removed the HDD and it had some change.. only took 40 seconds.. so my question is.. is it really the HDD taking up the time.. and if so.. can I do anything?
 
Solution
Because bad sectors are a hardware issue, Nothing will actually fix them(they get mapped out[reallocation], but by that point, things tend to get worse.).

Reformatting a drive should not change the SMART status. It may move pending sectors to reallocated, but the problem will likely return at some point(how long is hard to tell. IT could be days, months or years).
The old external could be failing leading to the system taking more time to try to read it. When a drive fails to do what it is supposed to the system will normally wait a certain time before spitting an error into the even viewer.

I recommend you run something like CrystalDiskInfo to see the SMART status the all your drives.
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

Multiple drives in it self is not normally going to slow a system down once it is all recognized and setup.
 

Rohidroid

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Jan 19, 2014
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Here's the S.M.A.R.T. Log of all my drives
SMART_Log_ASUS
 
I am guessing your raw values are hex so when converted to 10 you have some reallocation and pending happening. This in it self can cause some slow downs and is normally a sign that a drive is developing errors(it could last years or days).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Hitachi HDT725032VLAT80
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : Hitachi HDT725032VLAT80
Firmware : V54OA4NA
Serial Number : VF6201R22L5LXN
Disk Size : 320.0 GB (8.4/137.4/320.0/320.0)
Buffer Size : 7372 KB
Queue Depth : 1
# of Sectors : 625142448
Rotation Rate : Unknown
Interface : Parallel ATA
Major Version : ATA/ATAPI-7
Minor Version : ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D version 1
Transfer Mode : UDMA/100 | UDMA/133
Power On Hours : 11725 hours
Power On Count : 5691 count
Temperature : 41 C (105 F)
Health Status : Caution
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, 48bit LBA
APM Level : 0000h [OFF]
AAM Level : 80FEh [OFF]

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 _16 000000000000 Read Error Rate
02 100 100 _50 000000000000 Throughput Performance
03 110 110 _24 000701620146 Spin-Up Time
04 _99 _99 __0 000000001B11 Start/Stop Count
05 100 100 __5 00000000004A Reallocated Sectors Count 74 reallocated sectors. These sectors had been damaged at data was moved to a clean spot on the drive(this number climbs as more of the drive surface fails).
07 100 100 _67 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
08 100 100 _20 000000000000 Seek Time Performance
09 _99 _99 __0 000000002DCD Power-On Hours 11725 Hours
0A 100 100 _60 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C _99 _99 __0 00000000163B Power Cycle Count
C0 _95 _95 __0 000000001B4F Power-off Retract Count
C1 _95 _95 __0 000000001B4F Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 146 146 __0 003800190029 Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 00000000004A Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count Currently you have no sectors waiting to be reallocated. Bad sectors enter this state before they get into the reallocated attribute.
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count

Overall this drive is not doing that well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) ST9500325AS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : ST9500325AS
Firmware : 0002BSM1
Serial Number : 6VEVGBX3
Disk Size : 500.1 GB (8.4/137.4/500.1/500.1)
Buffer Size : 8192 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 976773168
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : Serial ATA
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 4
Transfer Mode : ---- | SATA/150
Power On Hours : 614 hours
Power On Count : 1215 count
Temperature : 32 C (89 F)
Health Status : Caution
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 8080h [ON]
AAM Level : ----

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 104 _98 __6 0000094B0C28 Read Error Rate
03 _99 _96 __0 000000000000 Spin-Up Time
04 _99 _99 _20 000000000646 Start/Stop Count
05 _99 _99 _36 000000000027 Reallocated Sectors Count This drive has 39 sectors that have gone bad and been reallocated to another place on the drive. This again is a sign of future failure.
07 _66 _60 _30 00010041FE51 Seek Error Rate
09 100 100 __0 000000000266 Power-On Hours This drive has 614 hours of operation. It is likely almost new and should be able to be replaced under warranty.
0A 100 100 _97 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C _99 _37 _20 0000000004BF Power Cycle Count
B8 100 100 _99 000000000000 End-to-End Error
BB _10 _10 __0 00000000005A Reported Uncorrectable Errors
BC 100 _99 __0 000100010012 Command Timeout
BD 100 100 __0 000000000000 High Fly Writes
BE _68 _49 _45 0000201E0020 Airflow Temperature
BF 100 100 __0 000000000006 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 000000000278 Power-off Retract Count
C1 _97 _97 __0 000000001C3B Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 _32 _51 __0 001400000020 Temperature
C3 _56 _52 __0 0000094B0C28 Hardware ECC recovered
C5 100 100 __0 000000000001 Current Pending Sector Count You have 1 single sector still waiting to be remapped.
C6 100 100 __0 000000000001 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count

This drive is not exactly in great shape either.

Personally at the first sign of remap, I replace a drive.

I recommend you run the drive makers software to give the drives a good test(DO NOT WRITE ZEROS because that will ERASE it). A long test, like the name implies will take long, but will check the full drive surface. This may lead to more remapped sectors as it finds other bad sectors. This may allow the drive to temporarily work like normal but chances are the bad sector problem will get worse with time.

My recommendation is to get a new drive and try to clone your current one over before it gets too bad. I also HIGLY recommend backing up your personal files ASAP(CD/DVD/Flash drives)

Flash drives should be used from time to time because left off over the years can loose data. Discs(CD/DVD/BD) should be scanned now and then because they can break down over years as well.

For reference here are the current drives I am running(In my media center system). You can use CrystalDiskInfo to show normal Base 10[dec] values so not conversions are needed.

Please note my rather excessive Gsense rate is too much vibration(not great for it, but unavoidable in this case).
21ammi0.jpg
 

Rohidroid

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Jan 19, 2014
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So I can't do nothing about fixing it?
I reformatted C: and all looks good now..
 
Because bad sectors are a hardware issue, Nothing will actually fix them(they get mapped out[reallocation], but by that point, things tend to get worse.).

Reformatting a drive should not change the SMART status. It may move pending sectors to reallocated, but the problem will likely return at some point(how long is hard to tell. IT could be days, months or years).
 
Solution