Troubleshooting Slow Boot Times on a Friend’s PC: A Guide to Understanding HDD Issues

Recently, a friend reached out to me about a frustrating problem with his PC. He was experiencing significant slowdowns, particularly during the boot process, which was taking over an hour to complete. Since this was a common setup issue, I decided to take a closer look.

System Specifications

For context, here are the key specifications of my friend’s computer:

• Processor: Intel i5-9600KF
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 RAM
• Storage:
• 1TB SATA HDD (split into two 500GB partitions)
• 256GB NVMe SSD (operating system is installed here)
• Power Supply: 500 Watts
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

Symptoms Observed

Upon investigation, I performed several diagnostics:
1. After booting, I checked the Task Manager to observe resource usage, which appeared normal for the CPU, GPU, and RAM.
2. Notably, the hard drive was consistently showing 100% active time, raising suspicions about its health.
3. Accessing files on the HDD was extremely slow, and, in some cases, completely unresponsive. Additionally, the desktop icons took a considerable amount of time to load after startup.

I attempted a virus scan, but it was so sluggish that I had to halt it after 30 hours of scanning with little progress. Although the browser and other programs operated normally, the issues with the HDD were impossible to ignore.

Troubleshooting Steps Taken

In an effort to resolve the problem, I tried several potential fixes:
– Deleting temporary files to free up space
– Clearing out unnecessary files from the drive
– Checking and reinstalling drivers

Discovering the Culprit

A pivotal moment came when I disabled the HDD through Device Manager and restarted the PC. The boot time dramatically improved, taking only a few seconds. This finding led me to suspect that the HDD itself may be the root of the problem.

Seeking Further Solutions

At this point, I am left wondering about the next steps. While I am considering options such as reformatting the HDD, I’m also keen to discover whether there are other troubleshooting methods we might explore before resorting to that.

Some questions if anyone has experience with similar issues: