HP Pavilion hard drive response time is very slow but tests pass (evenutally)

I have owned a HP Pavilion M1199a originally running Windows XP, but has been running Windows Vista 32-bit for the last 3 years or more.
The PC started to lock up for 30 seconds or more (2 weeks ago), with the disk light constantly on then go again for no apparent reason. These lock ups have become more frequent and for longer durations. I removed anti-virus software, and a few other applications/services but generally this computer is fairly clean as I use it as a media center PC.
I have tried checking the disk (SATA) for errors, and it passes although the tests take a lot longer than they should. The resource monitor shows no excess CPU usage and there is plenty of memory available. The disk monitor shows response times of 5000-20000 ms.
What is the best way to proceed from here? Is there a SATA controller or motherboard (ASUS PTGD1-LA) test? Should I buy another SATA drive and try that? I suspect that it is either the drive, drive controller and/or the motherboard that is failing but I don't know how to isolate the problem. The computer hardware configuration has remained the same for years.
The OS has the automatic updates enabled and I uninstalled the recent ones in case they were somehow causing an issue.

tr3v wrote:
Thanks for replying.
1/ No, but I am running Vista, so assume this will be the same? Or should I just look at the tmp and temp environment variables to see what folders are being used?
In Vista type temp in the Search programs and files box and double click on the temp files icon that appears above. Delete all the files in the folder that you can. It is safe as they are exactly what they are called and that is temporary files. If you haven't done this ever or in quite a while there should be a noticeable increase in the operating system's response time.
2/ Yes. It completes after a very long time.
5/ No - but will try this out too.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

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MacBook Pro 2009 new hard drive install results in very slow function and freezing

I just wanted to post my resolution to a problem that I had trouble finding an answer to on these forums.
Short version:
I replaced the hard drive in my 2009 MacBook Pro because the computer froze and upon reboot the Disk Utility said it was corrupted, but with the new hard drive the computer ran very slowly and often showed the spinning rainbow wheel. I replaced the SATA cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard and it works perfectly once again.
Long version:
Recently my MacBook Pro (2009 running Snow Leopard) froze up and I performed a hard reset by holding down the power button. When I turned the computer back on it would not boot OS so I ran disk utility from the Snow Leopard install DVD. The test said the hard drive was corrupted, and since the computer is way past warranty I decided to change the drive out myself. I bought a 500GB Seagate Momentus 5400 Drive from Amazon, opened the computer and replaced the existing hard drive with the new one. When I first booted from the OS install DVD, my computer was not recognizing that any hard drive was present. I read somewhere on these forums that sometimes the formatting on new Seagate drives can't be read by MacBooks and they need to be reformatted using another computer, but I tried simply taking the hard drive out and putting it back in a couple of times thinking maybe I had just not plugged it in correctly. After the 4th attempt the hard drive magically showed up, and I was able to reformat the drive and install OS and even Windows XP on bootcamp.
Everything seemed to be okay but applications were running slowly considering this was a fresh drive and OS install. Over time, the computer started to hang more and more. In OS I would get the spinning rainbow wheel even when doing something as simple as opening a browser window in Chrome or trying to type into a text field. When I tried to use Windows it would simply freeze after only a short time and I'd have to do a hard reset.
I went to the Genius Bar at the Apple store which was unhelpful, so I continued searching through these forums to try to figure out the problem. I noticed a lot of people had trouble with the SATA cable that came with the computer because it's quite thin and delicate, and would get damaged when changing out the hard drive. However most of these people seemed to experience a question mark when starting up the computer, whereas mine would fully boot and be functional for a time. I thought it unlikely that a damaged cable could possibly leave the computer partially functional. Finally though I gave in a dropped the $26 for a new SATA cable on Amazon. As soon as I installed it the problem was fixed, and the computer runs as fast as when I first bought it. I don't know if I damaged the cable changing the hard drive (I was extremely careful) or if my original hard drive was not actually corrupted and the cable was already damaged. I mentioned the possibility of the cable being damaged at the Apple store and the representative said that often times they fail because people carry the laptop with one hand, and because of the way this model was designed this puts a lot of pressure right on that thin cable. Regardless, if you do plan on changing out your hard drive in your MacBook keep in mind that the SATA cable is sensitive, and that if you experience problems with a fresh hard drive and OS install the SATA cable is a likely culprit.

If you think you have either a hard drive or a cable problem, to the best of my knowledge the only product that can help isolate both of them is Scannerz. You can check it out at:
http://scsc-online.com/Scannerz.html
I think that's the correct link. If it isn't and you're interested and that's wrong, just google it. I'd also check out their downloads section, especially the sort of short document on using path isolation to detect and isolate problems.
Scannerz can detect both errors and irregularities. It uses the surface scan progress as a reference. Cable problems never show up at the same location because they're typically intermittent. Surface problems always show up at the exact same place. That's the only product (at least commercially available) that can do that.
I don't know if this information is of any value to you because it sort of sounds like you've already solved the problem, but it might be of use if you have problems in the future.
In any case, I've seen several posts on several different sites where people were reporting insulation break down on some of the SATA cables. Apparently the insulation breaks down and the cable starts shorting to the case.

Connecting External Hard Drive to Time Capsule - In Finder but not Disk Utility

Hi,
So I've got a bit of a problem. I have connected my LaCie 2d Quadra External Hard Drive into my Time Capsule via USB for the simple purpose of making it wireless, as well as allowing both my husband and I to access the files on it. It works flawlessly on my husband's MacBook Pro: Shows up as an icon on the desktop as well as in Finder and Disk Utility. However, on mine I can access it via the Time Capsule in Finder (as a shared file), but it does not show up in Disk Utility nor on the Desktop. I tried installing the LaCie Desktop Manager, but, although it downloaded and installed fine, when I went to open it I received the error: "No LaCie Desktop Manager Compliant Device Found". I am assuming that is because it really is only even recognizing it at all in the Finder because it is a shared file, but not actually recognized as a Drive. And that explains why it is not on the Desktop or Disk Utility. Annoyingly, I can't drag the shared file onto my desktop either. Well I can, as an alias, but it says original not found when I try to access it.
Obviously, I would like to access the LaCie drive on my desktop wirelessly as my husband does, the way it does when I plug it in directly. If I connect it via USB directly into my MacBook, it works fine. So really it is just a matter of getting it up and running wirelessly, which I know it can do because it is doing it on my husband's. I am wondering if it is a Lion issue, as I am running Lion and my husband is running Snow Leopard? But then again...it does work with my Lion if I plug it in directly...sigh...
Here are our details:
Me: 2008 MacBook, running Lion
Hubby: 2008 MacBook Pro, running Snow Leopard
Any help would be greatly appreciated...I'm bewildered!

On your Lion MacBook, click anywhere on the open desktop so that the Finder menus are displayed at the top of the screen.
Click Finder, then click Finder Preferences, then click the General tab
Under the heading of "Display these items on the desktop" make sure that there is a check mark in the box next to "Connected Servers"
Close Finder Preferences
Open Macintosh HD or the Finder
Look to see if the Time Capsule icon is displayed under the SHARED heading in the Finder
Click on the Time Capsule icon and folders representing the Time Capsule disk and your Lacie disk should appear to the right
Double click on the Lacie folder to mount the drive on the desktop
You may need to click Connect As at the upper right of the center window if your disk requires a password. Once the password is saved, you should not have to enter the password in the future.

Mac system, When I use shockwave, the response time is very slow. I have updated Shockwave.

I am running OS X 10.6.8. I am trying to do a jigsaw puzzle, but the cursor movement is slow and erratic. I have updated Adobe Shockwave, but still have the problem. The last time I updated Firefox I had the same problem and went back to the old version. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tr3v wrote:
Thanks for replying.
1/ No, but I am running Vista, so assume this will be the same? Or should I just look at the tmp and temp environment variables to see what folders are being used?
In Vista type temp in the Search programs and files box and double click on the temp files icon that appears above. Delete all the files in the folder that you can. It is safe as they are exactly what they are called and that is temporary files. If you haven't done this ever or in quite a while there should be a noticeable increase in the operating system's response time.
2/ Yes. It completes after a very long time.
5/ No - but will try this out too.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

ITunes Response time is very slow while downloading.

When iTunes is preforming some task it is not responsive on Windows 7.
For example: When it is downloading a program I click one of the libraries it can take up to 1 minute before that item is selected and the screen goes to that selection. It appears that the file that is downloading has to complete before it process the command.
It appears that everything that I click must wait for the download to complete before iTunes processes the click.
Even if I am in another program like "Word" and click iTunes in the Taskbar it waits until the files gets downloaded before the iTunes app comes to the forefront.
It does not matter if a device is plugged in or not.
Another sign is that progress bar (while downloading) goes to 0% to 100% with no (or maybe one or two) steps.
Shouldn't download be a background task?

I have the same issue.
along with having to hold the power OFF for an inordinate amount of time to get the "thing" to shut down.
AND, it's TOO QUIET. I have to get up and go look at the printer to see if it's doing anything at all.
Ink cartridges are OUTRAGEOUSLY priced. Stupid Me. I neglected to see how much it would cost to operate this unit. IF I had checked, I would have bought a different printer (Epson). So now I'm stuck with a new out of ink printer after 2 days of use. Over $40USD to print 200 pages (IF I'm that lucky).
There is NO setting to ignore color out notices to continue printing in B/W, so once one of the color segments runs out, the whole printer is useless.
So now I have a scanner and still need a printer.

Backing up photos on iMac using external hard drive and time machine

How do i back up photos from my imac using an external hard drive and time machine
Thanks in advance

Apple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
Setting up and using TM is very simple to do, connect any external HD (format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility ) and your computer shoudl ask if you want to use that EHD for a Time Machine backup. If you have any questions visit your local Apple Store or reseller and they can answer how to setup and use TM and also should be able to offer suggestions on EHDs. My personal preference is OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro due to the build quality and OWC's level of support.

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

How do i install a new hard drive using time machine

Hi there
I have purchased a new 1TB hard drive for my Mac book pro (late 2008) model. I have time machine installaed on a seperate hard drive connected with an airport base station. I do not have the orginal snow leapoard/mountain lion OS CD or DVD. Can someone please tell me the exact steps to install the new hard drive .
Thanks

You haven't inserted your new hard drive yet?.
There's two ways
1. install yourself
2. or pay someone to install it for you.
If you want to do it yourself go to google and type in "install new hard drive for macbook pro". sometimes it makes a difference what model your macbook which is why i won't provide you a link just in case its the wrong one.
Its very easy.
1. remove all screws and the lid.
2. remove screws from the black bracket which is holding your hard drive in place.
3. unplug your hard drive.
4. VERY IMPORTANT (A MISTAKE I MADE). make sure that you remove the external screws from your original hard drive as these screws are the one thing that hold and stabilise your hard drive and stop movement from happening.
5. insert these external screws to your new hard drive (there are four screws)
6. insert and plug your new hard drive.
7. screw the black bracket in firmly
8. attach lid and insert all screws firmly.

Is it possible to use more than one external hard drive for Time Machine backups?

I want to use two hard drives for Time Machine backups.
Bigger one keep at home and be sure it is safe.
Second one (very small pocket size) keep with me for travels.
I want to backup to both drives to be sure I can restore everywhere and to be sure if something bad happened with my small travel disk I can restore from home backup.
Is there any problem with listed schema? Is it normal for Time Machine to handle backups for different drivers and keep everything consistent and smooth?

I really need some help! I have been using an Iomega NAS 1TB HD for the past year. And I received an error message. I believe I have ran out of memory on this drive.
Then recently in the last couple of months I got a ReadyNAS Duo 2TB with 2TB RAID. Should I switch my back ups to this one and delete the other back up file or keep the old back up image file on the Iomega?
Can I transfer the old image back up to this new ReadyNAS? How do I do this?
I appreciate any help.

Can I use Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive tos tore my music library(but with cable connection,not WI-FI)

Can I use my Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive to store my music library but with a cable connection(Ethernet or USB) and not Wi-Fi.

Yes, with the following warnings.
1. A 1TB TC is a Gen3 or earlier and can die at a moments notice.. So backup is essential.
2. A Gen1 or 2 is slow.. even over ethernet they were processor bound and so transfer speeds are not great.. a USB2 plugged into the computer will be faster. Gen3 is about 50% better as the processor was upgraded by 50% speed.
3. TC has no built in backup.. TM cannot backup network drives.
4. TC is designed to spin up slowly and spin down quickly.. you will have issues with itunes constantly losing the library.
5. You cannot use USB to the TC.. it is a network drive. If you want to use USB directly on the computer buy a USB drive.. but buy as fast a drive as your Mac supports.. Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
USB3 is cheap and very good.. but the port is only from 2012 so check your Mac specs.
Thunderbolt whilst being super fantastic and around since 2011, has a bank account clearing price although there are Thunderbolt to esata converters.. for around $160. esata falls between usb3 and fw800.
FW800 from WD is no better than USB2 but other brands it can be twice the speed of usb2.
USB2 is the worst. But still faster than a TC.

I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

Thanks for your response.
I had tried COMMAND+ALT+R which led me to directly to INTERNET RECOVERY via wifi. After 1 hour or so it dropped me at the same point.
I've tried MIGRANT ASSISTANCE as well, it kept on LOOKING FOR OTHER COMPUTERS even though I clicked on TIME MACHINE BACK UP USING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
so what to do now?
P.S. Guys at MacStore were so careless to even listen to me when I asked them about retrieving back up :(
Please help

Hard drive, SSD, Time machine question

I was using a Macbook Pro mid 2012 13" for this problem.
About a month ago, I upgraded my hard drive to a Crucial Solid State Drive (SSD) 240 gb m500. I used Carbon Copy Cloner and everything went very smoothly and my computer worked great for about two months. Randomly one day, I turned on my computer and got a WHITE SCREEN. I have tried several things to try and correct this SSD but none of them will work. I have come to the conclusion that it is a broken/unusable SSD and am returning it.
My problem comes that my time machine backup is on my old macbook pro hard drive. I want to put back in that hard drive into my MBP with all my files intacted, but of course it is not in the right format to run.
I have access to another MBP, a 500 gb external drive, as well as a internal hard drive enclosure to plug my old hard drive into USB externally.
My question is would it be to risky, if I backed up my friends MBP to the 500gb external hard drive using time machine. Then I put my time machine backup on his computer. Then make a copy from his computer of my time machine backup to my old MBP hard drive. Then put my newly copied hard drive back into my MBP. And then take my friends MBP and time machine his backup back from the external drive back onto his computer.
Let me know if you have any other ideas. Thanks
~Katherine

With the SSD still in the MacBook, hold down the Option key at Startup. This will draw an icon for each potentially-bootable drive.
Now go away from your Mac and leave it powered on doing nothing for 20 to 30 minutes.
Sometimes an SSD gets so clogged with data it needs idle to do a major Garbage collect, but thinks it is still being accessed, so it delays the Garbage Collect. Leaving it alone for 20 minutes or more MAY allow it the time to fix itself.
If this helps, read this article on TRIM:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRM
consider installing TRIM Enabler from Groths.

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now.

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now

It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

How do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?

I have an external hard drive connected to my iMac that is being backed up with Time Machine. I just realized that should it one day fail and no longer appear as a connected device, I'm not sure how to restore its data to another external drive. When I disconnected the external hard drive (to mimic a drive crash) and entered Time Machine to see if I could verify that the external hard drive was, in fact, being backed up - I didn't know where to find it. Under the Today (Now) information, I didn't expect to see it there as it was no longer connected to the machine. But when I went back a few days, I expected to see its backup appear in the Sidebar. But no!
So - how do I restore a failed external hard drive using Time Machine?
Searches for this information on Google yielded "iffy" results. I'm hoping someone here is able to offer some clear steps to follow. Perhaps I'm missing something silly. Thank you very much!

I came across this discussion after encountering the same problem. Since my internal HD was cose to full I added an additional external HD to my setup. I moved my iPhoto files to an external HD and backed both this external HD and my internal HD up with Time Machine to another external HD. So far the theory. When I wanted to test if this setup worked I noticed that I could only see my iPhoto libraries on the external HD in Time Machine when the external HD was connected to my computer, but not if I turned it off. This led me to search for a solution on the Apple Support Communities discussion board.
The suggestions made Kappy seem right, at least in my experience, in that my Time Machine simply did not back up the external HD until I followed the steps he suggested above. These were the following:
"So, if you want it backed up then here's what you need to do:
1. In Time Machine preferences remove the external drive from the Exclude list.
2. Verify that it is now included with your other drive in the backup list.
3. Do a Backup Now to create a new backup of the external drive."
After doing this, my external HD showed up in the Backups.backupd as a seperate folder. I could clearly see the Time Machine back-up for my internal HD and my external HD. In addition, in Time Machine itself I was able to find the external harddrive by clicking on my own computers name under "Devices". I hope my experience helps to resolve your issue as this discussion board has helped me resolve mine (which I believe to be very similar).
Cheers!

HP Pavilion hard drive response time is very slow but tests pass (evenutally)

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