PCMech Forums - View Single Post - Hard drive lags/freezes upon loading programs

Aaron D. · 06-18-2005, 01:22 AM

I've been using my Maxtor "DiamondMax Plus 9" 250GB HDD for about a year now, and recently after defragmenting & then restarting one day, my HDD started to completely lag behind on loading programs (took about 30 min. to load one friggin' program, or it wouldn't even load a program at all!). Maxtor HDDs are usually quiet by nature, but I've since noticed a repetitive, silent-like "clicking" noise now, as if it's "stuck" trying to initialize a program that I try to run (such as MusicMatch or SoulSeek, or even when I would try to open folders). I have a plentiful 320MB of RAM, and I'm using Windows XP Pro, so I know it's not that. My PC restarts and loads the desktop just fine, and it doesn't lag when moving my mouse around, only when loading ANY program on my computer. What sucks even worse, is I couldn't even backup anything onto data discs because I couldn't even load NERO or MusicMatch to do it! I couldn't even load Norton to scan for viruses, either. But I've ruled out viruses/trojans/worms as being the culprit, because I decided to just wipe my whole HDD clean and reinstall Windows XP, but when it got to the second phase in installing XP (loading files in), it wouldn't even move past 0%. It just sat on 0% for an hour. My HDD's warranty is expired, so now I'm back to using my old, measely 30GB HD. I do not want to toss my 250GB HDD in the trash, nor do I want it to become obsolete, because I paid alot for it, and it's only a year old. Since this happened right after defragmenting, I'm not sure if it caused the problem, or if it's just a "coincidence" that my HDD went out right after I defrag'd. Again, it would restart and load Windows just fine, but not any programs, nor does it get passed the second phase when reinstalling Windows XP. Any suggestions or similar experience?

06-18-2005, 01:22 AM	#1
Aaron D. Member (4 bit) Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 14	Hard drive lags upon loading programs I've been using my Maxtor "DiamondMax Plus 9" 250GB HDD for about a year now, and recently after defragmenting & then restarting one day, my HDD started to completely lag behind on loading programs (took about 30 min. to load one friggin' program, or it wouldn't even load a program at all!). Maxtor HDDs are usually quiet by nature, but I've since noticed a repetitive, silent-like "clicking" noise now, as if it's "stuck" trying to initialize a program that I try to run (such as MusicMatch or SoulSeek, or even when I would try to open folders). I have a plentiful 320MB of RAM, and I'm using Windows XP Pro, so I know it's not that. My PC restarts and loads the desktop just fine, and it doesn't lag when moving my mouse around, only when loading ANY program on my computer. What sucks even worse, is I couldn't even backup anything onto data discs because I couldn't even load NERO or MusicMatch to do it! I couldn't even load Norton to scan for viruses, either. But I've ruled out viruses/trojans/worms as being the culprit, because I decided to just wipe my whole HDD clean and reinstall Windows XP, but when it got to the second phase in installing XP (loading files in), it wouldn't even move past 0%. It just sat on 0% for an hour. My HDD's warranty is expired, so now I'm back to using my old, measely 30GB HD. I do not want to toss my 250GB HDD in the trash, nor do I want it to become obsolete, because I paid alot for it, and it's only a year old. Since this happened right after defragmenting, I'm not sure if it caused the problem, or if it's just a "coincidence" that my HDD went out right after I defrag'd. Again, it would restart and load Windows just fine, but not any programs, nor does it get passed the second phase when reinstalling Windows XP. Any suggestions or similar experience? Last edited by Aaron D.; 06-18-2005 at 01:55 AM.