My computer has become extremely slow when doing Windows-related tasks, such as opening applications and extracting files. Extracting a 3 GB archive takes an unusually long time. Games stored on my external drive run normally, although I have not tested games installed on the WD Green drive. The SSD is a 480 GB WD Green, and my system has an RTX 3060 12 GB and an i5-12400F. A friend told me the SSD may have bad sectors. Could the drive be failing, and is there anything I should try before replacing it?
2 Answers
An SSD that suddenly becomes extremely slow can be close to failing, especially if its health software is reporting errors. WD Green drives are entry-level models, but the brand alone does not prove the cause. Check the drive’s SMART health data with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo, and replace it if the health status or error counters look bad.
Back up anything important immediately and avoid continuing to use the drive heavily. If the SSD fails completely, recovering the data can be difficult and expensive. The safest approach is to install a new SSD and clone the old one while it is still readable, or reinstall Windows if there is nothing worth preserving.
Fortunately, there is no important data on it. I recently formatted the SSD hoping that would fix the slowdown, so replacing it looks like the safest option.