New
#11
So, an update. A little too early to mark as resolved but definitely almost there.
Yesterday I ran several free HDD testing utilities against the HDD in question (hooked up externally to the OMEN laptop I am using right now) and compared the results to the same tests ran against two other old HDDs hooked up the same way (and also tested the internal drive of the OMEN. While obviously the external drives had slower speeds to the internal one, the results were similar. Further, the other tests, including another chkdsk found nothing wrong. Nevertheless, I wiped the drive clean and did a deep format then popped it back in the parent laptop and installed Windows from the setup guide you referenced. As you might have expected, 3 hours later, no difference. So, I took one of the old drives I used to compare against and wiped it clean and threw it into the laptop and installed windows. I could tell just as it asked for input, that it was starkly faster than the other (Toshiba) HDD. In fact, after it asked me how to install windows, I began typing this reply and just now it finished. So clearly, you all were correct, the HDD was pooched, but can you explain to me how?
How does a hard drive (that is making no noises and passes all tests - although I didn't try one from Toshiba) fail in such a way that it even slows down the on-screen echo of what I am typing or cause programs that should already be in RAM to take about 25x as long (literally) to open?
Thanks again for all this guidance.