[Diego8]

A few days ago a worm infected my computer and i had no other choice but to format the hard disk and install Windows XP Pro.
I didn't know how deep the worm infected it so i decided to erase the partition. At that moment i didn't have the fdisk and format tool, so i did all that using the Windows installation.
Erased the partition just fine, created it and then formatted using NTFS file system in quick mode. Everything was going fine then something cought my attention. Before the Windows XP start up screen appeared (the one that has a progress bar) another progress bar showed up, this one was a "DOS style progress bar", but as the Windows XP usual start up screen then appeared i didn't take too much importance to that.
The real problem came after that. The thing is that it took like one minute and a half to show the desktop. After it loaded i rebootted but the same thing happened.
I have no idea what's the problem because at that moment there was nothing else to load but the OS.

Thanks in advance.

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Hi Diego8!

A good rule of thumb whenever reinstalling XP is to delete the current partition and create a new one like you did. Good job there But one thing you did that you shouldn't of done is do a quick format of the drive. ALWAYS do a full format when installing XP. It's not only good for the hard drive itself, but helps clear up other problems that could be on the drive.

Fenor

[Fenor]

Hi Diego8!

A good rule of thumb whenever reinstalling XP is to delete the current partition and create a new one like you did. Good job there But one thing you did that you shouldn't of done is do a quick format of the drive. ALWAYS do a full format when installing XP. It's not only good for the hard drive itself, but helps clear up other problems that could be on the drive.

Fenor

[Diego8]

At first i did a full format but it took ages to go from 0% to 1%. The owner of the computer really needed it working as soon as possible so i had to reset and format using quick mode.
Well, the thing is that i had to erase everything once again, because the same problem reappeared.
This time i used fdisk. Erased the partition fine then it took like 10 minutes to check the drive's integrity. Then i formatted using FAT32 file system and it took like an hour. It's a 40 GB HD and format found 3,16 MB in bad sectors. Really, really strange because the hard disk is 5 only months old.
Anyway, i installed Win XP once again and this time it took the same amount of time to load.
I thougth the hard disk was the source of the problem but after that i guess there's something else.

Edited by Diego8, 15 November 2005 - 02:48 PM.

[Fenor]

If it took that long to go from 0% to 1%, then the most likely culprit for why windows is slow is because the hard drive is on it's way out. It should normally take about a minute/gigabyte when doing a full format during windows setup. I would suggest you tell the owner that they should invest in a new hard drive. Would be a shame if they didn't want to do that and a couple weeks/months down the road the hard drive crashes and they have lost all their important stuff they had saved on it. At least this was caught when there wasn't anything important on the drive since you just did a reinstall of windows on it.

Fenor

[Fenor]

Problem could also be a wrong IDE cable for the hard drive, or just an old one that is damaged. If the IDE cable isn't 80-pin, then I suggest you switch it with one that is 80-pin, but if it is 80-pin, then I suggest you try a new 80-pin cable.

Fenor

[Diego8]

The IDE cable is 80-pin i will try replacing it but the only slow down is during Windows startup then it's fine.
If the ide cable is the problem slow downs should be at all times or at random times, am i right?.
Also, it's a 5 months old computer. Anyway, i will try that.

Thanks.