Topic Title

I will try to make this short...

My desktop ran AutoCAD and SketchUp just fine until my 60 GB hard drive decided to die. Luckily I was able to save files before it kicked the digital bucket.

So I bought a 200 GB hard drive (got a killer deal on the same make that died (Maxtor)) and had a friend install it. Now my machine seems to run slower than before. SketchUp is slow on larger models that run fine at work and pretty much all of my programs run slower.
Can a larger HD do what I am describing or did something else possible die?
Thanks for any info as I am pretty hardware ellit... iliter... elet... DUMB.

Thanks.

Is it the same RPM as the prior drive? If it is a 5400 instead of a 7200 that could make it a little slower.

Is it the same RPM as the prior drive? If it is a 5400 instead of a 7200 that could make it a little slower.

That... I have no clue.

Hi,

When it was installed, do all the contents of the old HD just get copied over to the new one, oe did Windows get reinstalled, and then all of your software?

What version of Windows are you running?

It is hard to guess why there would be a slowdown -- usually a new HD is faster, and a fresh installation of Windows always clears out the cobwebs...so I can't think why it would be slower, unless there is some issues with the (motherboard's?) IDE controller not working wll with a large HD. What is the formatting: FAT (aka FAT16), FAT32, or NTFS? (FAT = File Allocation Table, and NTFS = NT FFile System. The latter is only supported in WinNT/2K/XP and is more robust that either of the FAT formats.)

Hey Neil!

I don't know all the answers to your questions but I do know this.
It was a clean install. The old HD after much clicking and sputtering simply died. My friend installed everything new.

I am also running XP.

As to the rest of your questions... I dunno. Where would I look for the Formatting?

Found the formatting.

NTFS

(EDIT)

Also found the speed... 7200 RPM
http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=655219/

After some more searching on the Dell site I found this...
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_bios&message.id=38071&c=us&l=en&cs=&s=gen

Seems like I might need a software accelerator

Hello,

Right -- or you could get a 120GB HD instead of the 200GB?

I am starting to think a new, smaller HD is the fix.
I do not really need 200GB, I just got a killer deal. It was cheaper, on sale, than the 120 GB and I had a $20 cupon. I ended up paying just over $40 for it. I don't have the receipt anymore as this "fix" happened about 5 months ago. The problem started right after the new HD, I have just not used the computer for much other than emails lately.

It pays to check it out first huah.

As I mentioned before, I had a friend install the new HD.
If I get a 120 GB HD, is it easy to install? Easy to transfer from the 200 to the 120?
I don't think I would need to reinstall everything... would I?
Can I just install it, transfer everthing over and then take the 200 GB out?

Man I feel dumb about these things.

I bought a 120gb WD drive from Sam's for ~$70 and it came with an installation disk that included the software necessary to setup the new drive and copy all the files from the previous drive. Piece of cake.

Thanks Dick.
WD??? Western Digital?
The 200GB I got is a Maxtor.

Thanks again.

Eric -

Don't know if you've searched for this yet, but there **may** be a free, downloadable utility to do what you want. You could check out the drive manufacturer's websites (ie. Maxtor, Seagate (new owner of Maxtor), Western Digital, etc.) or try a Google search.

Good luck! After 20 years of being digital ... can we just go back to ink and vellum? Life (and drawing!) was SO much simpler then!

Greetings,

It is called MaxBlast for Windows. It will transfer everything from the 200GB over to a 120GB, and you should not need to reinstall anything.

Keep the 200GB for your next computer...I noticed there, that the limit is actually 137GB, and they have a "fix" for this in Windows 2000 SP3. What flavor of Windows do you have?

BTW, Seagate has purchased Maxtor.

Thanks a bunch guys.
I will keep you posted