Is the HDD failing, or some partitioning issue?

Question

Hi superuser community,

I have a problem with my old but good notebook since almost a year, that my PC (Win7) performance degrades over time with too long boot up time and too slow opening software. I mean slower, even after a fresh clean install. And no, I am not using it for intense operations, but even a web browsing turns into trouble or logging into skype takes 10+ minutes, even though 4 years ago I could run Civilization V without any problems.

I would like to have your opinions regarding the reasons of the performance issues, especially for SMART report as well as partitioning table below.

What I did:

• I suspected malicious software --> scanned, it was clean
• I made a clean Win7 install after formatting --> boot up and file operations or running SW still take too long.
• Installed Linux Mate dual boot (it was not the reason for installation), but currently it is much faster than Win7, therefore it might be a SW issue as well. But on the other hand it is comparing apples vs oranges
• I suspected RAM Issues: memtest --> it was OK

What I suspect:

• HDD failing down, since it is 6 year old notebook HDD Smart Report
• Bad Partitioning (Only 1 Physical Partition was available and for Linux Mate, I had to split it to logical partitions to preserve data, thus sub-optimal partitioning) Partition Table for HDD
• Complete old system, time to buy a new notebook

What could be the underlying reason of the degrading performance?

Thank you

Update: I booted windows to check the resource monitor and attached the results to below. I still cannot embed them to the post, therefore they are available as links.

Resource Monitor - Overview

Resource Monitor - Disk Usage

Resource Monitor - Memory

I assume the disk I/O is the bottleneck, as it shows 100% active time (blue). The CPU usage seems OK around 10-30% and the task 'system' is the part uses the disk I/O a lot, assumed it is swapping the memory to disk, I think both SSD and RAM upgrade would a be a reasonable solution.

I know it is not a hw suggestion forum, but what I consider is: is it then worth to invest around 130€(90€ for SSD, 10€ for Caddy and around 30 € for 4gb ram) for this notebook or buying a new one around 600-700 with some decent specs and 2 year warranty.

A short info regarding the Notebook specs:

Dell N5110 Notebook
4gb ddr3-1330 (6-6-6-20) ram
i5 2410M CPU
5400rpm HDD
Nvidia 525M GPU

SMART Tool Output

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   152   139   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       1383
4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   096   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       4787
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   184   184   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       126
7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   080   080   000    Old_age   Always       -       14641
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   096   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       4068
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       164921
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       185
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       1214123
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   092   081   000    Old_age   Always       -       51
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   132   132   000    Old_age   Always       -       68
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0032   082   082   000    Old_age   Always       -       13738
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       45299434411
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       57505229630
254 Free_Fall_Sensor        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

Answer 1

Although your hard drive is old - and should be replaced because its past its useby date (and an SSD almost always makes a massive difference), there is nothing you have reported which implies a hardware fault.

The problem is most likely Windows has become very bloated (and the conspiracy theorist in me believes pushes you to new hardware based on more then 1 anecdote). This bloat includes both Windows with its updates, and general software and libraries commonly used)

Another possibility is how full and how fragmented the hard drive is. As hard drives fill up (generally over about 85% - to draw an arbitrary line in the sand), they get significantly slower. Defragmenting the disk might help.