Why HDD was fast back-in-the-day, but so slow today?

Massarelda · 18 Feb 2023

Hi,

A relative gave me a Lenovo z51 laptop (i7-5500). She said several years ago, this laptop would boot up fast and generally respond quickly. But about two years ago, it began to boot very slowly. 　I timed it: it takes almost 10 minutes to boot. It has a WD 1-Tera HDD. The HD was 100% busy during this 10 minutes. The laptop runs very fast after it is done booting.

So, I have been trying to make it boot faster. I tried everything. After several days of trying, I got boot time down to 3 minutes. But my relative swears, it used to boot in under 1 minute back in the day.

I learned alot of people also complain about slow boot with HDD.

So looks like HDD used to be fast to boot back in the day, but it became slower and slower over time.

Do HDD wear out over time?

I have a brand new Seagate HDD that came with a refurbished Thinkpad.
I am thinking of trying it out.

22H2 (19045.2604)

NTN · 18 Feb 2023

The guy like to talk....a lot, but he may have some useful tips.

Hearsepilot · 18 Feb 2023

Massarelda said:

Hi,

A relative gave me a Lenovo z51 laptop (i7-5500). She said several years ago, this laptop would boot up fast and generally respond quickly. But about two years ago, it began to boot very slowly. 　I timed it: it takes almost 10 minutes to boot. It has a WD 1-Tera HDD. The HD was 100% busy during this 10 minutes. The laptop runs very fast after it is done booting.

So, I have been trying to make it boot faster. I tried everything. After several days of trying, I got boot time down to 3 minutes. But my relative swears, it used to boot in under 1 minute back in the day.

I learned alot of people also complain about slow boot with HDD.

So looks like HDD used to be fast to boot back in the day, but it became slower and slower over time.

Do HDD wear out over time?

I have a brand new Seagate HDD that came with a refurbished Thinkpad.
I am thinking of trying it out.

22H2 (19045.2604)

Has it been defragmented in the last century?

Try3 · 18 Feb 2023

I agree with hearsepilot.
And you should benefit from running CleanMgr first - Disk Cleanup - TenForumsTutorials
I also wonder if you've been to Lenovo support to check for updated Bios & hardware drivers.

Best of luck,
Denis

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NTN · 18 Feb 2023

And good, old ReadyBoost of course, but be aware of the speed in the USB.....some of them is painfully slow.
And you could use many of them too....

How to speed up Windows 10 using ReadyBoost

itsme1 · 18 Feb 2023

If has not already been done, check the health status of the hdd, third-party software or if lenovo has a hdd test when starting the computer, to see on the lenovo page. If it's ok the hdd do a clean install of Windows.

NTN · 18 Feb 2023

When hibernating, the PC saves all the active sessions from your RAM memory to the boot drive and shuts down the system. When you turn on the computer, it restores the data from the boot drive to the RAM again as if you never power off your PC.

In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and hit enter:
Powercfg.exe /hibernate on

Will make your old HDD fast as a dodo on steroids.

Massarelda · 18 Feb 2023

Yes, I tried defrag already.

I already re-installed Windows with ISO image. Immediately after re-installing Windows (before getting Windows Updates), it would boot very fast (like an SSD).
But after getting Windows Updates, it would boot slow.

So, I suspect there is nothing wrong with the HDD. Probably be a software issue.

ALso, I don't install any additional software. So, this is a very clean system.

- - - Updated - - -

P.s. When I say slow, I only mean slow boot times. After boot, the laptop is very fast and responsive.

So, I think the HDD is fine.

jonnied12 · 18 Feb 2023

I have used PrimoCache for years. It is exactly what was stated in the video above. Great program.

NTN · 18 Feb 2023

Massarelda said:

Yes, I tried defrag already.

I already re-installed Windows with ISO image. Immediately after re-installing Windows (before getting Windows Updates), it would boot very fast (like an SSD).
But after getting Windows Updates, it would boot slow.

So, I suspect there is nothing wrong with the HDD.

ALso, I don't install any additional software. So, this is a very clean system.

- - - Updated - - -

P.s. When I say slow, I only mean slow boot times. After boot, the laptop is very fast and responsive.

So, I think the HDD is fine.

Try booting Windows in safe mode, as it is possible that outdated system drivers and third-party applications cause slow startup issues.
Keep in mind that if the slow startup issue does not occur while booting Windows in safe mode, then the slow startup issue has been occurring due to two reasons. One is that there might be a system driver causing high DPS, and for that reason, you are encountering this issue, or there is a third-party application preventing Windows from loading fast.