Laptop functioning unusably slow after abrupt outage

dalchina · 05 Oct 2017

Looks like you need to get a new disk.
Hope you've been using disk imaging routinely as we repeatedly recommend- if so, you'll be back up and running in an hour or so after putting the new disk in. (Or cloned your disk...) Otherwise, if you haven't got backups, try and rescue what you can, and try to delay panicking until later.

If you've no disk image or clone or similar, then you're facing a clean install on a new disk.

Note: you can get a second opinion with Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) which gives a very clear indication.

You can also run a surface test with that (Disk, Surface Test).

Also note that running a program such as HD Sentinel provides continuous monitoring and early warning of disk problems.

Once you're back up and running with a clean install on a new disk, I recommend the first thing to do is create your first disk image.
(E.g. Macrium reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage for disk image sets- Backup, Backup Windows - images all Windows partitions)

georgeks · 05 Oct 2017

1f0 translates to 496 re-allocated sectors.

That's a lot for a HDD to handle.

f14tomcat · 05 Oct 2017

georgeks said:

1f0 translates to 496 re-allocated sectors.

That's a lot for a HDD to handle.

@georgeks Yes it is. As posted above, looks like you may need a new drive.

Link for Macrium Reflect Free, if you want to take a look. Highly recommended here, free, reliable and easy to use. And a link to an excellent tutorial here on TF for using it.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

nico27 · 08 Oct 2017

f14tomcat said:

@georgeks Yes it is. As posted above, looks like you may need a new drive.

Link for Macrium Reflect Free, if you want to take a look. Highly recommended here, free, reliable and easy to use. And a link to an excellent tutorial here on TF for using it.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Thanks will check it out.

Also i am noticing improvements in performing tasks/less freezing, however small improvements, for example i can now play videos saved on my laptop without freezing.

Is it possible through use and more cleanups it could continue to get speed up?

COMPUTIAC · 08 Oct 2017

nico27 said:

Thanks will check it out.

Also i am noticing improvements in performing tasks/less freezing, however small improvements, for example i can now play videos saved on my laptop without freezing.

Is it possible through use and more cleanups it could continue to get speed up?

Looking at this, you are playing with fire.

Laptop functioning unusably slow after abrupt outage-fire.jpg

Whatever small improvement is temporary at best, you need to replace the drive before it dies when
you least expect it.

Helmut · 08 Oct 2017

"Is it possible through use and more cleanups it could continue to get speed up? "

Definitely not, once bad sectors are developing it can only get worse, it's a mechanical device.

Whilst the marking off of bad sectors may temporarily improve things that will be short lived as damage is only going to get worse.

Just buy a new HDD.

dalchina · 09 Oct 2017

As your hard disk is failing, if you were to try to create a disk image now with Macrium Reflect, it will probably fail with a CRC error (indicating data/disk corruption). You can try of course.

What you need to do is make sure you've copied off and backed up as much data as you can successfully read from it, and as we've said, get a new disk and clean install. You might want to take the opportunity to upgrade to a SSD (boots much faster).

Download Windows 10 ISO File Installation Upgrade Tutorials
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
(Activation is automatic)

As soon as Windows is running,create your first disk image - so when you buy a new disk, make sure you've got a big enough one for disk image sets too.

That way you can often avoid reinstalls, and have a full backup.

Note Hard Disk Sentinel (e.g.) provides continuous monitoring of your disk, so can alert you of disk degradation.

nico27 · 17 Oct 2017

Hi apologies for the slow reply, I am currently travelling which made my hard drive failing an even more pain.

I have looked up on some SSD to buy and i read PCIe SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs
I have come across two on eBay i would like to buy but i am unsure if they will fit or how I will go about it?

OPTION 1:
Toshiba 256GB XG3 M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive - P/N: THNSN5256GPU7 | eBay

OPTION 2:
Toshiba XG4 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD PCIe THNSN5256GPUK 2280 Solid State Drive XPS | eBay

zbook · 17 Oct 2017

1) read this link
M.2 SSD Notebook Upgrade Guide

2) read the link above in the performance section which compares PCIe to SATA
The article was dated March 2017

Performance. For general use, this is one area where you probably won’t have to spend a lot of time researching, as just about all new M.2 storage drives on the market will not show noticeable performance differences for day-to-day usage. Pricier drives, such as PCI Express drives supporting the NVMe protocol, will generally have better performance for more storage-intensive activities, but the situations where a drive like that would really be worth the extra over a traditional drive are few and far between.

3) use the crucial web site to have it scan your computer and provide information
Crucial US | DRAM, Solid State Drive (SSD) Memory Upgrades

4) Whatever you get remember that the BIOS and chipset must support drivers to be able to use the drive features. So you may need to make the extra effort if you need the performance to make sure the bios and chipset with the available drivers are available for the computer to provide the performance.

5) probably the best option is to find the least expensive reputable drive manufacturer with a 3 year warranty

nico27 · 18 Oct 2017

zbook said:

1) read this link
M.2 SSD Notebook Upgrade Guide

2) read the link above in the performance section which compares PCIe to SATA
The article was dated March 2017

Performance. For general use, this is one area where you probably won’t have to spend a lot of time researching, as just about all new M.2 storage drives on the market will not show noticeable performance differences for day-to-day usage. Pricier drives, such as PCI Express drives supporting the NVMe protocol, will generally have better performance for more storage-intensive activities, but the situations where a drive like that would really be worth the extra over a traditional drive are few and far between.

3) use the crucial web site to have it scan your computer and provide information
Crucial US | DRAM, Solid State Drive (SSD) Memory Upgrades

4) Whatever you get remember that the BIOS and chipset must support drivers to be able to use the drive features. So you may need to make the extra effort if you need the performance to make sure the bios and chipset with the available drivers are available for the computer to provide the performance.

5) probably the best option is to find the least expensive reputable drive manufacturer with a 3 year warranty

Yeah not sure i can be asked with the hassle anymore i am just going to go with a crucial ssd as it's most straightforward. Hope they are good

Thanks