I have one 80gb harddrive, one 300gb and one 500 external. The problem is that not long after getting my external drive the 300gb one started performing really slowly. For instance when extracting a rar file it takes longer than usual, starts and stops all the time and seems to use up all my ram causing the computer to freeze. Also it takes forever to transfer a file to or from that drive to my other drives. I have 2gb of ram.

If someone could help me get to the bottom of this problem that would be much appreciated.

Thanks

1. Disconnect the new external drive. Do the other drives return to their prior good behavior?
2. If so, then is the external drive connection USB2.0?
3. If so, your USB Enhanced Host Controller might need updated drivers.
Suggest you goto the http://driveagent.com and run the scan.

Good Luck...

The answer to the first question is no. And yes its usb 2.0.

Was the external harddrive "new" or used?

new

If the problem is just with one drive (hopefully not the C: drive), can you move the contents to a different drive? If so, suggest you move the contents and reformat the drive, then test the drive to see if its still causing you the same problem.

Good Luck...

illastic,

When your computer freezes does your mouse cursor lock up too? If so, then the main culprits are heat or insufficient power/PSU dying. Since removing the USB drive doesn't seem to help, you may be dealing with a heat issue, make sure that all exhaust fans (CPU Case fans and PSU Fans) are clean and dust free. Another good test would be to remove both side panels from your tower and run a standard oscillating fan through it. If that fixes the problem then we've narrowed it down.

If none of that works you could also try downloading the trial of drivesitter to run diagnostics on your hard drives to make sure that your 300GB isn't starting to flake out on you.