HD corruption causing Windows slowdown?

First off, Technical questions belong in the Technical Q&A section of TR.

Secondly, you have already done too much without correcting the root problem.

While it is gut instinct to suspect your hard drive with the symptoms you have, a more likely cause is a loose connection.

Check all of your internal connections.
Remove and reseat all plug in cards, RAM modules, and cables.

Check that the lever on the CPU socket is in the locked position.

While rare, another possible cause is a fractured solder joint on any of the circuit boards. The motherboard being at the most risk.

Unfortunately, if reseating connectors does not fix the problem, the easiest way to trouble-shoot this is to swap parts until you find the culprit.

Chas

I would start looking for a loose or broken connection on the leads to the HDD's and start off by replacing the IDE lead and see if there is any improvement these 80 way leads do break from time to time and I've run across a few that just don't work right for no visible reason but when replaced everything is up and running properly.

If that happens cut the lead with something and bin it! It will save you a lot of grief latter when somehow it ends up in another computer.

While the Q & A would get you faster responses just at the moment it doesn't appear to be working properly as I've been unable to answer a few questions. So for the time being forget about it but generally you will get a faster response to any questions that you ask there as you'll get an auto-generated message telling you that someone has answered your question whenever someone places an answer. That way you are far more likely to get someone in your time zone to help you out which is just plain faster for you. Don't forget to rate every response and post your solution when and if you find one.

Col

This is a tech. problem, in search of a solution.

It properly belongs in "Technical Q&A," not in "Discussions." Please re-post there.

Not only will you be more likely to attract the attention of those seeking to provide answers, but you will also make it easier for those seeking discussions to find such.

Thank you.

FIXED!

I formatted and did a clean install of Windows...and all was good! Just proves that often formatting is the best (and easiest) fixing method.

I still have no idea what was wrong with it specifically (software problem for sure though). Here's my theory: When I brought it to school I guess all that shaking somehow managed to corrupt a few system files on the HD (that's why windows wouldn't start). After I reinstalled windows I guess those files were over-written but something else got messed up (drivers, file system, swap file...we'll never know).

Suggestion for similar problem of this type:
1. Do a virus scan, defrag if you need to.
2. check all hardware connections (especially IDE cables) and restore your BIOS setting to default.
3. check Hard drive for problems (ScanDisk or physical surface scan using programs like HDD Regenerator to find bad sectors)
4. If neither one helps, back up your data, format the drive and do a clean install of windows
5. If the problem still presists, well then there is something for sure wrong with your hardware. Try using the hard-drive in another computer, basically do a process of elimination until you find the culprit.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone!