XP Pro - Laptop - Disk problem.

[Carl]

Hello all,

Last week I was happily working away on my laptop, when I picked it up to
move it - the hard disk bay (which was not screwed in) popped out and the
whole disk unit came out in my hand. I was suprised when XP did not crash, so
I plugged the disk/bay back in and after a few minutes of disk activity - it
all came back to life and carried on.

My problem now is that every thing runs slow, and there is a constant flurry
of disk activity followed by very slow disk activity. During all of this,
most apps become unresponsive and even the mouse/cursor becomes slow etc.

I have checked for viruses/spyware etc etc and this isnt the problem. I am
100% convinced that it is related to the disk beng disconnected then
reconnected.

Any ideas welcomed.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Paul]

Carl wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Last week I was happily working away on my laptop, when I picked it up to
> move it - the hard disk bay (which was not screwed in) popped out and the
> whole disk unit came out in my hand. I was suprised when XP did not crash, so
> I plugged the disk/bay back in and after a few minutes of disk activity - it
> all came back to life and carried on.
>
> My problem now is that every thing runs slow, and there is a constant flurry
> of disk activity followed by very slow disk activity. During all of this,
> most apps become unresponsive and even the mouse/cursor becomes slow etc.
>
> I have checked for viruses/spyware etc etc and this isnt the problem. I am
> 100% convinced that it is related to the disk beng disconnected then
> reconnected.
>
> Any ideas welcomed.
>
> Thank you in advance.

Get a copy of HDTune from hdtune.com

http://www.hdtune.com/hdtune_info.jpg

Use the Info tab, then examine the lower right hand corner information.
That will tell you whether the drive interface is running at the rated
speed or not. (Or at least, post back, and tell us what the two values
show.)

If the drive is not running at its rated speed, check this KB article,
and in particular, see the "Workaround" section. It is possible the
dropped disk incident, caused the accumulation of a few CRC (interface)
errors. The Workaround will rediscover the disk, and reset things
again.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472

Paul

 

[Carl]

Cheers - I will give this a try and get back with some results.

In addition - process explorer show a constant level of hardware interupts
at around 50%. Quite high me thinks?

"Paul" wrote:

> Carl wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Last week I was happily working away on my laptop, when I picked it up to
> > move it - the hard disk bay (which was not screwed in) popped out and the
> > whole disk unit came out in my hand. I was suprised when XP did not crash, so
> > I plugged the disk/bay back in and after a few minutes of disk activity - it
> > all came back to life and carried on.
> >
> > My problem now is that every thing runs slow, and there is a constant flurry
> > of disk activity followed by very slow disk activity. During all of this,
> > most apps become unresponsive and even the mouse/cursor becomes slow etc.
> >
> > I have checked for viruses/spyware etc etc and this isnt the problem. I am
> > 100% convinced that it is related to the disk beng disconnected then
> > reconnected.
> >
> > Any ideas welcomed.
> >
> > Thank you in advance.
>
> Get a copy of HDTune from hdtune.com
>
> http://www.hdtune.com/hdtune_info.jpg
>
> Use the Info tab, then examine the lower right hand corner information.
> That will tell you whether the drive interface is running at the rated
> speed or not. (Or at least, post back, and tell us what the two values
> show.)
>
> If the drive is not running at its rated speed, check this KB article,
> and in particular, see the "Workaround" section. It is possible the
> dropped disk incident, caused the accumulation of a few CRC (interface)
> errors. The Workaround will rediscover the disk, and reset things
> again.
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472
>
> Paul
>

 

[Paul]

Carl wrote:
> Cheers - I will give this a try and get back with some results.
>
> In addition - process explorer show a constant level of hardware interupts
> at around 50%. Quite high me thinks?
>

Interrupts ? Or CPU usage ?

On my machine right now, interrupts are 2000 per second. CPU usage is about
5%. The interrupts are high, because I'm alt-tabbed out of a 3D game. I think
you're referring to CPU usage. Take a look at the list of tasks in
Task Manager, and see which one is using the cycles.

Paul

 

[sdlomi2]

"Carl" <Carl@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BFE8595D-F477-4904-B7AF-9F5E2EBBF4D4@microsoft.com...
> Hello all,
>
> Last week I was happily working away on my laptop, when I picked it up to
> move it - the hard disk bay (which was not screwed in) popped out and the
> whole disk unit came out in my hand. I was suprised when XP did not crash,
> so
> I plugged the disk/bay back in and after a few minutes of disk activity -
> it
> all came back to life and carried on.
>
> My problem now is that every thing runs slow, and there is a constant
> flurry
> of disk activity followed by very slow disk activity. During all of this,
> most apps become unresponsive and even the mouse/cursor becomes slow etc.
>
> I have checked for viruses/spyware etc etc and this isnt the problem. I
> am
> 100% convinced that it is related to the disk beng disconnected then
> reconnected.
>
> Any ideas welcomed.
>
> Thank you in advance.
You may wish to check in Device Mgr that ide has not changed to PIO mode
from the preferred dma (or udma?) mode. sdlomi2