[Pro] Reinstalled Windows XP not PC is slow

About a month ago we had a major power surge here and my hard drives were wiped clean. I lost every bit of info on my computer and had to start from scratch. Right now I have a 60gb hard drive that I use for my main drive and a 320gb that I use for all my other stuff. The main drive is set to 60gb anf the 320gb drive is divided into smaller 40gb drives. The 60gb drive is the older of the two drives and I had Windows installed on the newer 320gb drive last time before all the problems. I am thinking that the 60gb drive is just slow compared to the newer 320gb drive because everything is just real slow compared to the way it was before. I mean programs take way longer to open and even close and sometimes it just looks like the PC is locked up but the hard drive light is going crazy. I don't believe its a virus because it did this right after I installed windows. Is it possible to install another Windows XP on one of the 40gb drives and have a dual boot...one install on the older drive and one on the newer drive to compare speed? Besides a service pack 2 update that is the only thing that I can think may be the problem and I need to get it fixed before this computer drives me nuts ;)

Check the rpms of the drives. That 60 just maybe a 5400 instead of 7200RPM.

Yes you can see the differences in time.

Did you check all the motherboard drivers are installed correctly not just with the windows vanilla drivers but witth those designed for the board?

Yes I installed all the drivers that came with the MB but I will def double check them to be sure. I will also check the rpm speed on the 60gb drive but I thought they were both 7200 rpm. I attempted to install windows on another portion of the newer hardrive but the partition I wanted to use is a logical drive and I am not sure I can install XP on it unless its a primary drive right?

Did you check the possibility that the power surge not only wiped your drives but also damaged the electronics contained in the drive?

Doc

XP can be installed on a logical drive. Just be sure to let it know where you want it to be.

You can dual boot Windows with itself, and you can install it on any volume on any drive that you like.

I'm with the Doc here, that power surge could easily have damaged the drive - I had it happen to me a few years ago, and loading Windows became downright painful. Invest in a good Uninterruptible Power Supply, it's worth it. I like these ones:

www.apc.com

Thanks Sparks I bought a APC the same day my drives were wiped so it never happens again. Also it is very possible that the drive could be damaged. Is there any way to test it?

Yes indeed. You can download a diagnostic utility from the hard drive makers website which you can run from floppy. See what that has to say. Here are the most common utilities:

Seagate Seatools

IBM / Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Maxtor Maxblast 3

Maxtor PowerMax

Western Digital Software & Drivers

Fujitsu Utilities

Samsung Drive Utilities

Thanks I will run the test and see what happens.

OK well I ran the diagnostic tool and both my drives passed the test. I also went ahead and put windows on the new hardrive and so far it is way faster making me believe the older drive is just .....well old. Anyway I do have one more question for you guys, how do I change the boot order. Right now the new one is the default but I would like to make the original one the default untill i get everything changed over.

Switch the jumpers or go into BIOS and change the order of the hdds.
What are the make and model numbers on those hdds.

wd3200jd is the newer drive and
wd600bb is the older drive.

So just switching the order in the bios will change the order of the dual boot also? Sounds easy enough to me.

Caviar WD600BB 60GB Hard Drive
EIDE ATA-100, 7200 RPM, 2MB - MPN: WD600BB

WD Caviar® SE WD3200JD

SATA Hard Drives
320 GB, 150 MB/s, 8 MB Cache, 7200 RPM

Seems SATA and the large cache is helping out. :D