gale force

Yes understand that, all data etc. not reloadable from CD will go on the separate drive. The faulty drive is only 2y old, is that usual for it to go now? The other drive in the box is the original WDC 120gb but has only been the back up for last 2yrs. Can you recommend a good drive to replace the Maxtor 10 160gb or is it desirable to replace the desktop as it is 5yrs old ? Many thanks

Just seen your reply, will do so asap

Oh dear this sounds serious, I'm talking about drive "C" with all the progs on, the other part "D" has docs/photos etc. everyday stuff works ok Can you expand on your diagnosis ? Thanks.

No joy with that but Googled www. commandprompt.com and found list of commands, tried a few but not sure what I'm looking for, any suggestions.

I went into Command prompt. Headline said, Specified command search directory bad. I entered chkdsk /r and response was: chkdsk is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable programme or batch file. Re. the system I have not changed anything but upon log on and loading there are a couple of slight "clunks" quite distinct from the normal "gurgling" of the hard drive.

Yes thats correct, it used to be quicker. So I am unable to do much whilst it churns away. A "clean install" might help but pc performance is also greatly degraded when defragging

I use Zone Alarm Security Suite's latest upgrade version 7, it takes approx 5hrs. to do a full scan inc. spyware of 270,000 files. I have not investigated inside so will start there. Many thanks

I think approx 26 progs on start up, how does that sound? Thanks

The OS was reinstalled after a crash about 1y ago

pc running very slowly I will investigate number of progs running at start up but the C & D drives are on a Maxtor 10 160gb drive added about 18 months ago. Does that help?

Just recently my pc has been very slow to freezing in these instances: 1 When running a Zone Alarm virus/spyware scan. 2 Defragging hard drives. Defragging is done as needed and I run a tune up prog regularly. Pc is approx 5 years old with this spec. Pent. 4 3ghz (HT) 800 mhz FSB Chip Intel 865pe RAM 512mb (2x256) PC 2700(DDR400) DDR SDRAM (Dual channel DDR) Cache 512kb (on die) C&D hard drives are only about half full. Apart from this the machine is OK can you suggest any replacement components to improve the performance. Many thanks