How Do I Fix a Slow Hard Drive?
If you are asking yourself “How do I fix a slow hard drive?” then, chances are you have encountered blue screens, error messages, processor crashes and even physical failures. It’s a good feeling when your computer system can access information that it needs in an efficient manner. A computer is a complex machine that is often the target of many different repairs and adjustments. There are several reasons why your computer may behave the way it does. It’s likely that you will be able to identify the problem and take care of it on your own if you know how do I fix a slow hard drive properly.
A disk in a computer is made up of a number of individual components that work together to help your computer to store and retrieve information. Because hard drives have moving parts, they tend to develop problems over time and may need to be repaired or adjusted. The key to proper maintenance is being able to identify where the problems are originating from. If you have a slow disk drive, it may be because of a fragmented disk or too much writing activity. Fragmented disks tend to become damaged easily and will lead to slower performance.
Write-offs, also called erase write errors, occur when a file is written over another file. When this happens, the old data is not written over and so the write-off is permanent. A computer will often display the word UNWRITABLE when this problem occurs. In order to fix this problem you will need to physically remove the file from your computer and then create a mirror image of it so that your computer can recognize the missing data.
Physical failures involving a hard drive are a bit more complicated. You will need to take your computer to a specialist and have it examined in order to determine what the problem is. Your hard drive may be physically failing but the other components may still be operating normally. This is why it is important to always know how do I fix a slow hard drive before you bring the unit in for repair. If the other components are working, then there is a good chance you can get by with a software-based solution.
Other issues may involve software issues. It may be that your computer has encountered a virus that makes it impossible for it to read the information it needs to run. This is one of the most common reasons for computer slowdowns and will require the expertise of a computer technician. Other possible reasons for slow performance could be a Trojan horse, spyware or malware. You will be glad to know that all three of these issues are easily corrected when you take your computer in for repair.
A Trojan horse is installed on your computer without your knowledge. It appears to be harmless to the point of being almost invisible but once installed it can wreak havoc on your system. It can hide inside of other programs and then cause many problems including the inability to access your files. There are some Trojan horse repair programs available but you will need to be very careful about which one you use.
Spyware and malware can also reside on your hard drive but you would be surprised at how easily they can become active. They can collect information from your computer, track your activities and in some cases send this information back to their creators. A lot of the time, a Trojan horse can be fixed by first scanning your hard drive for any infections. You can then download an anti-spyware program and run it to find the various infections it has found.
The last possible cause for a computer to run slowly would be a physical breakdown of the hardware. This is rare but it has actually happened to many people. If this has happened to you, then how do I fix a slow hard drive by reinstalling the operating system, getting a new hard drive and replacing the old one with a new one.