The hard disk is not only the slowest component of computers, but it is also the most fragiel part, because mechanical and subject to breakage more easily than any chip.
For this reason, hard drives today are often replaced with more expensive but highly more efficient and faster SSDs.
Be that as it may, on PCs with an internal hard disk or when connecting an external hard disk, it is rather simple to check whether it is slow in loading or fast, by trying to transfer files from one disk to another.
If this speed is significantly lower than you remembered, then there is a problem to be solved .
There would also be programs to measure the performance and health of a disk, such as Crystal Disk, which is simple to use.
If the performance of an external hard disk or even the internal disk of the PC has decreased, if the PC loads slowly, several steps can be performed to diagnose the problem and repair it.
1) Defragment the hard drive
While defragmentation is unnecessary and harmful to SSDs, it is still a vital task for hard drives.
For the internal PC disk, Windows 8 and Windows 10 have set up scheduled automatic defragmentation and there should never be any problems.
For an external drive, if it has been used a lot and has become slow, defragmenting it can be helpful instead.
To do it, just open the computer resources (or open This PC in Windows 10), locate the target disk, press the right mouse button to open the properties and go to the Tools tab to find the tool that optimizes the drive .
You can also find the defragmentation tool by searching for defragment and optimize drives in the search box of the Windows Start menu.
Before proceeding with the actual defragmentation, you must use the Analyze function to check if the disk is actually fragmented or if this operation is completely superfluous.
To learn more, I refer to the guide to defragment and clean a hard disk to optimize the computer .
2) Perform a disk error check
If defragmentation is not seen as necessary in the analysis phase or in any case if there are no speed and performance improvements even after completing it, the disk may have bad sectors.
To find out these errors you can use the old scandisk tool or check-disk.
As already explained, you can check disk errors with Chkdsk (Scan Disk) in Windows 7, 8 and 10 from the Properties of the disk drive, always in the Tools box, where there is also the one to defragment.
Disk error checking can also be started from a command prompt or from Powershell, with administrator rights, using the command:
chkdsk.exe / f [LETTER_DISCO]
Be sure to insert the drive letter of the disk (or partition) that is causing problems.
3) Check the hard drive for physical damage
If after defragmentation and after error checking the disk is still slow and with poor performance, it may actually be broken.
The signals of a broken disk can be the following:
- The LED light does not flash, remains off or on steadily.
- The computer often freezes when trying to access some files or browse the disk.
- The Check Disk does not work.
- The record makes strange noises.
In this case all that remains is to replace the disk and we have seen in another guide on how to recover files from broken hard disk or dead computer.
4) Check the cables for wear and tear
Another problem that can cause slow disk response are worn cables.
With an external HDD it is a question of checking the USB cable and any power cable, with an internal hard disik the one to check is the SATA cable on the motherboard.
Cracks in the rubber insulation of the cables can often indicate a damaged cable inside.
Trying with different cables could therefore solve the problem at a decidedly low price.
In the case of an external disk, unfortunately, the problem may be not in the cable, but in the USB port and in this case it may be necessary to replace the entire external housing of the disk, which may not be so simple depending on how it was built. drive.
5) Too much disk activity
In the case of an internal disk, perhaps the hard disk where Windows is installed, the computer could slow down a lot if there are continuous and constant data loads.
We talked about this problem in a specific article, explaining how to use the task manager to check if Windows slows down because it uses too much disk.
6) Check for viruses and malware
Viruses and malware are the most frequent cause of any malfunction of the computer and one of the main effects of an infection is certainly the slowdown in performance.
Weekly scans with a program like Malwarebytes antimalware must always be done.
7) Disable Windows 10 indexing
On internal PC disks, there may be a slowness problem caused by the file indexing activity which is automatic in Windows 10.
Disabling indexing speeds up loading operations, although it will make searching for files slower and almost impossible.
But since there are better programs to search for files on a computer, turning off indexing in Windows 10 (and also Windows 7 and 8) is always a thing to do.
To disable indexing, press the Windows + R keys together, write services.msc, press OK and wait while the Services window opens.
Among the services, locate the indexing one (it is called Windows Search ) stop it with the Stop button and then disable it.
If everything went wrong, then I refer you to the guide on what to do if the computer hard disk is broken or damaged, so as to recover important data.
For this reason, hard drives today are often replaced with more expensive but highly more efficient and faster SSDs.
Be that as it may, on PCs with an internal hard disk or when connecting an external hard disk, it is rather simple to check whether it is slow in loading or fast, by trying to transfer files from one disk to another.
If this speed is significantly lower than you remembered, then there is a problem to be solved .
There would also be programs to measure the performance and health of a disk, such as Crystal Disk, which is simple to use.
If the performance of an external hard disk or even the internal disk of the PC has decreased, if the PC loads slowly, several steps can be performed to diagnose the problem and repair it.
1) Defragment the hard drive
While defragmentation is unnecessary and harmful to SSDs, it is still a vital task for hard drives.
For the internal PC disk, Windows 8 and Windows 10 have set up scheduled automatic defragmentation and there should never be any problems.
For an external drive, if it has been used a lot and has become slow, defragmenting it can be helpful instead.
To do it, just open the computer resources (or open This PC in Windows 10), locate the target disk, press the right mouse button to open the properties and go to the Tools tab to find the tool that optimizes the drive .
You can also find the defragmentation tool by searching for defragment and optimize drives in the search box of the Windows Start menu.
Before proceeding with the actual defragmentation, you must use the Analyze function to check if the disk is actually fragmented or if this operation is completely superfluous.
To learn more, I refer to the guide to defragment and clean a hard disk to optimize the computer .
2) Perform a disk error check
If defragmentation is not seen as necessary in the analysis phase or in any case if there are no speed and performance improvements even after completing it, the disk may have bad sectors.
To find out these errors you can use the old scandisk tool or check-disk.
As already explained, you can check disk errors with Chkdsk (Scan Disk) in Windows 7, 8 and 10 from the Properties of the disk drive, always in the Tools box, where there is also the one to defragment.
Disk error checking can also be started from a command prompt or from Powershell, with administrator rights, using the command:
chkdsk.exe / f [LETTER_DISCO]
Be sure to insert the drive letter of the disk (or partition) that is causing problems.
3) Check the hard drive for physical damage
If after defragmentation and after error checking the disk is still slow and with poor performance, it may actually be broken.
The signals of a broken disk can be the following:
- The LED light does not flash, remains off or on steadily.
- The computer often freezes when trying to access some files or browse the disk.
- The Check Disk does not work.
- The record makes strange noises.
In this case all that remains is to replace the disk and we have seen in another guide on how to recover files from broken hard disk or dead computer.
4) Check the cables for wear and tear
Another problem that can cause slow disk response are worn cables.
With an external HDD it is a question of checking the USB cable and any power cable, with an internal hard disik the one to check is the SATA cable on the motherboard.
Cracks in the rubber insulation of the cables can often indicate a damaged cable inside.
Trying with different cables could therefore solve the problem at a decidedly low price.
In the case of an external disk, unfortunately, the problem may be not in the cable, but in the USB port and in this case it may be necessary to replace the entire external housing of the disk, which may not be so simple depending on how it was built. drive.
5) Too much disk activity
In the case of an internal disk, perhaps the hard disk where Windows is installed, the computer could slow down a lot if there are continuous and constant data loads.
We talked about this problem in a specific article, explaining how to use the task manager to check if Windows slows down because it uses too much disk.
6) Check for viruses and malware
Viruses and malware are the most frequent cause of any malfunction of the computer and one of the main effects of an infection is certainly the slowdown in performance.
Weekly scans with a program like Malwarebytes antimalware must always be done.
7) Disable Windows 10 indexing
On internal PC disks, there may be a slowness problem caused by the file indexing activity which is automatic in Windows 10.
Disabling indexing speeds up loading operations, although it will make searching for files slower and almost impossible.
But since there are better programs to search for files on a computer, turning off indexing in Windows 10 (and also Windows 7 and 8) is always a thing to do.
To disable indexing, press the Windows + R keys together, write services.msc, press OK and wait while the Services window opens.
Among the services, locate the indexing one (it is called Windows Search ) stop it with the Stop button and then disable it.
If everything went wrong, then I refer you to the guide on what to do if the computer hard disk is broken or damaged, so as to recover important data.
