The malfunctioning hard drive causes the computer to become sluggish immediately after connecting it.
The malfunctioning hard drive causes the computer to become sluggish immediately after connecting it.
Whenever I connect this hard drive to my primary system, dad’s machine, or my laptop, performance drops significantly. Once it’s removed, things work normally again.
The issue might stem from Windows itself, as it handles file systems and updates automatically. Opening File Explorer often tries to check drives; if one fails, it can freeze or stop. Security programs like Windows Defender also scan connected external drives when they're active. Problems can arise even with network shares or mapped drives going offline.
It's not limited to Windows. A failing drive with many pending sectors would cause Windows to freeze, but connecting it to Linux would also stall and prevent a reboot, even after force disconnecting. That didn't happen on Windows. Mounting bad drives usually doesn't trigger useful timeouts. Using ddrescue to mount and image the drive helped because it adjusts sector read limits and retry settings. The drive cleared its pending sectors and functioned normally after full writes and re-reads, indicating bit rot rather than actual failures.
You can try restarting the drive to clear temporary issues, which often resolves freezing problems without affecting the whole system. If that doesn’t work, check for disk errors or run a repair tool. Avoid forcing the computer if it’s already unstable—gradual steps are safer.
Use a real Linux USB drive, turn off automount, and test if it works. If not, it’s likely unusable.