windows install/run extremely slow

[Ratedr]

I formatted my fathers Dell computer because he has had it for 3 years,
never defragged it, never cleaned it up, etc..so I decided to start
from the beginning. When I went to install windows xp pro, all of a
sudden what said 39 minutes, took about 6 hrs to install! each minute
was like 20+ minutes in real time. Then when it was finally installed
and I started the computer, it took about 45 minutes for windows to
fully load?!? Every program I try to open, takes forever. I loaded
it in safe mode to see, but same thing!
Has anyone heard of this or can offer any possible solutions to this
problem

 

[Ratedr]

sorry but to add to this (and this might help) everytime I boot my
computer now, it says primary hard disk not found! but it is there,
and when I go to setup in the cmos it finds it. could there be
something with this that might be causing a problem?

 

[philo]

sorry but to add to this (and this might help) everytime I boot my
computer now, it says primary hard disk not found! but it is there,
and when I go to setup in the cmos it finds it. could there be
something with this that might be causing a problem?

go to the website of the harddrive's mfg , the download and run the
diagnostic on the drive...
it could be failing