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hi all,
I have added internal 500gb SATA hard disk to motherboard.now total space is 500gb + 80gb (previous harddisk.) I have created 7 partitions for new harddisk.about 70 gb approx.previous 5 partitions..total partitions are 12.there are videos and audios on new disk but on playing them, system lags..CPU usage is around50-60% .sound and video slows down..but when I play audio and video from old disk everything is normal.xp is installed only in old disk.I have 1.12gb RAM.motherboard is Intel d102ggc2.supports 800/533 Mhz system bus..is there any hardware compatibility problem or is it processor is outdated ??? I had even increased virtual memory for each drive..but same problem..plz help me out..

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Dani AI

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added a second internal SATA disk and reported heavy lag and high CPU when the new disk is accessed. is right that multiple pagefiles on the same physical spindle don't buy performance; that idea can be parked while the underlying I/O problem is diagnosed.

Likely causes (in order of probability): the SATA channel or driver has fallen back to PIO/slow transfers, a bad SATA cable/port or marginal power, aggressive antivirus/indexing hitting the new volume, or a failing/poorly configured drive (SMART errors, write‑cache off). On Windows XP the quickest factual check is Device Manager: under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (or the storage controller entry) the channel/device properties → Advanced Settings show the Current Transfer Mode (PIO vs Ultra DMA). If a device is stuck in PIO, uninstalling the affected controller and rebooting will usually reset it to DMA — do this only with a current backup and when the boot disk won’t be impacted.

Practical, prioritized checklist:

  • Verify which process actually uses CPU: use Process Explorer / Sysinternals tools to see whether “System” or interrupts are high (driver/DPC issue).
  • Swap the SATA cable and use a different motherboard SATA port; retest.
  • Run SMART and surface tests (CrystalDiskInfo / vendor diagnostics) and chkdsk /f on the new volume.
  • Disable real‑time scanning or indexing temporarily and retry.
  • Ensure write‑caching is enabled in Disk Properties → Policies (with the usual power‑loss caution).
  • Put a single pagefile on the fastest physical disk (set initial=max to avoid fragmentation) rather than many pagefiles on one spindle.
  • Update chipset/SATA drivers and, if available, the BIOS as a last step. Also consider PSU load: disconnect the new HDD to see if behavior stops.

If the drive behaves normally when attached to another PC or when tested from a Linux live CD, the fault is in the original system (driver/BIOS/PSU). If problems follow the disk, pursue vendor diagnostics and RMA.

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Member Avatar for JorgeM

Logical partitions with multiple pagefiles on the same physical disk isn't going to help you increase performance.

Which application/process is using up the CPU?

Member Avatar for stupid guy

hello sir,
problem persists even if paging is not done for each drive.I have freed 3 out of 4 logical partitions of extended partition and made 2partitions unallocated out of 3 primary partition.but still the problem of slow moving of data and mouse pointer exists.In task manager all processes are normal but cpu usage is above 51% all the time while copying or moving data from new to old disk.clicking activities take CPU usage upto 75% and bring back to 51 % while data is still copying or moving PF usage is 254mb.

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