Can a failing hard drive mimic a OS out of whack?

[Neos]

Most of the time the PC does just fine. Then there are times that it just runs terribly slow - to the point of freezing up.

I know that the Seagate HD has a problem (low moaning on start-up) and a replacement is on the way - so I was wondering if a HD that might not be up to snuff could mimic a OS that would need cleaning/servicing?

The XP Pro OS (w/ SP2) has been cleaned with Registry Mechanic and defraged regularly. Also use Spybot. Could the HD could be the culprit?

Thanks

 

[edro]

Oh most definitely. I have had TONS of problems that resulted in a bad hard drive. Hard drives are very precise intruments. They can spin out of balance, or the motor starts to go bad, either one of which can cause humming or vibration. Hard drives are very picky and sometimes they will work and sometimes they won't just by doing stupid things, like flipping them upside down, pinching them, and an old trick to help recover data from a bad one, is it put it in the freezer inside a ziploc bag.

Moral of the story: Try a new harddrive. (they are fairly cheap now)

 

[montag451]

I would also check whether your pagefile/swap is defragmented, and what progs are running - and check with trojanhunter as well as spybot, adaware and your normal antivirus in safe mode.

if you think your drive is on the way out, download a utility from seagate to check your drive......

let us know

 

[Antoneo]

A bad hard drive can definitely cause the symptoms you are describing (including instability).

 

[montag451]

yeah - a bad hdd can do just about anything, even bang you on the head when you are dozing off in front of the monitor, but, just to be on the safe side, load up the seagate utility to check your drive

 

[Neos]

Thanks for the input, guys. I will check out the Seagate util.