Very slow windows after crash

[Motte]

Hi,

I kind of have a problem, a few days ago my computer crashed twice while I was working(nothing particular: adobe acrobat, Mozilla, windows media player). Since then my computer is significantly slower then before, starting up takes ages even my 3 year old laptop is faster . So I'm wondering/hoping that maybe anyone of you had an idea, I have tried searching the net, but couldn't really find anything and I have read some other posts here and it looks all very helpful, so any suggestions.

PS: I really love Daemon-tools

[FordPrefect]

Do you have Firewall- and Antivirussoftware installed?
Also take a look in your Eventlog, maybe that gives a hint.

[Motte]

Thx, for your quick reaction, I hope this gives some more clues.
I'm now looking at the eventlog, I can only find the first crash in the eventlog(sytem) with a lot of errors, around the time the second crash took place i can find none. There are around 7 errors, from which six have the source atapi and one disk all the errors have the eventnumber:
9(The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort1, did not respond within the timeout period.)
11(The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort1.)/(The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D.).
After the second crash my computer wouldn't start up at first because it couldn't locate some IDE or something like that. After i shut it down and pressed all the wires one more time it did start up, but still very slow.
I do have a firewall and virusscan. The virusscan showed however nothing. I also have the spyware utility from microsoft running. Oh before i forget, games play just the same after the crash as before the crash.

[al1uk]

check the SMART status of your hd. My pc rebooted once while installing a game, and that HD was never the same again :-(. It had a SMART failure and would run sooo slow.

[streetwolf]

If you think your problem might be caused by DT then remove it entirely and see if the problem clears up.

If you use System Restore you can go back to a Restore Point prior to the time you first had this problem. Be aware you might lose changes you made since taking that Restore Point.

If you image your partitions and have an image from before the problem you could restore it. *ALL* changes will be lost subsequent to when you made the image.

We all know that Sh*t happens with computers. The most unexpected problems can arise without any obvious cause. For this reason I image my system partition on a regular basis. I can't tell you how many times I ran into annoying system problems that I could not resolve. Restoring always solves the problem provided I go back to a point before the problem. Of course I have to reapply any changes that were lost.

Good Luck.

[Motte]

@ streetwolf, i'm a really demanding pc-user and there is no way i can back-up my pc, without using a second pc. I have around 15 games installed and all kinds of programs, and my computer has been able to handle it for more then a year. So i had no reason to complain.
I don't think it has anthing to do with daemon-tools, but because as far as i can see the most users here are very active pc-users software and hardware i thought i might ask it here.
@ al1uk, how do i check the smart status, although i use the computer a lot i'm only good with software and nothing that has anything to do with hardware.

Oh before i forget, i did discover one more thing. My computer has 3 hard-drives one regular 120g and two maxtor 200g which are as i'm told connected(using raid or something?) but when i opend the computer i discovered that one of the maxtor hard-drives didn't have any cables connected to it(at least not any regular like the other two had).
I don't know if it matters but i did have the two power cables of my dvd-drives disconnect for about a week, just to be able to outplay the total pop2t and having to keep the dvd in the drive.

PS: thx for helping.

[al1uk]

go to your manufaturers website and you should be able to get a tool of there. if you use seagate (what I have), then go to http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/...s/discwiz.html and use discwzard for windows or the online version.

[FordPrefect]

You may also use this tool to determine your SMART status. It is -- in my opinion -- a very good system information tool.
Also, SMART has to be enabled in your Bios.

[lazlo]

Also check if your h.d hasn't gone into pio transfer mode (device manager/ide atapi controllers). This can happen if your h.d gives a numer of errors over a short period of time.

If it has you can delete the driver and windows will start with the original one.

[Motte]

Thx, for all the tips.
My main hdd with windows on it is in fact a seagate model, so i downloaded the program al1uk suggested and let it scan my hard disks. It turned out that my second hard disk(maxtor) was fine but my seagate the one with windows did have a smart error. That was all the information i could get and it was late so i went to bed. This morning however my pc didn't turn on anymore it didn't get past the bootscreen. In the end i got the following error:
"no IDE master H.D.D. detected, press f1 to resume"
also my bios didn't recognize the drive anymore. Fortunatly i did get my computer working this afternoon at least it turned on. But in windows itself it's now freezed. So i'm pretty afraid the harddrive is just broke. Any suggestions to at least get my files of it? It contains all my documents, etc.

[Motte]

Oh, i did find something new, i don't know if it matters and it doesn't seem logical that it worked for almost a year, but it seems that my harddisks are set as third master and slave and my dvd drives as primary master/slave. I do have a sata connection(or something like that). My bios does detect my seagate drive but sometimes says it's smart status is ok, and then says it has a command failure.

[ghost_zero]

If you have too much SMART errors and it seems that you get more after some time you should exchange the harddisk asap...
The same refers for defect sectors (but that normally goes hand in hand... although I don't know that much about SMART)

[al1uk]

the best thing now would be to install windows on your 2nd hd, use it as the master, back up your documents off the failed drive, get an rma and send it to seagate warrenty. a SMART failed drive will fail sooner or later (according to seagate tech. support). use the online version of seagate tools at the same link, when it detects the failed drive, it should prompt you if you want to check your warrenty status. i've had TWO SMART failures, so i know how it feels

or if you have space, you can clone your failed hd to your maxtor one. my personal recomendation is acronis true image.

[Motte]

ok, i'm gonna try to get the computer running one more time just to get the files copied, but i'm afraid it's not gonna work. Most of the times it doesn't even get past te boot-loading screen. But with a bit of luck a miracle might just happen....
Anyway the man who build the computer is coming later this week to take a look, maybe he finds something although i'm starting to lose faith.
anyway thx for all the tips and i will keep you posted on the progress/problem and of course solution.

[Mystique]

I had Smart errors too on 3 other HDDs and i think it comes from the heat that comes when you have your PC to long on. Since i have HDDs Cooler Kit (2 little Fans under each HDD) my HDDs life longer without any error or restarting.