I recently removed an old hard drive from my laptop and installed it in my desktop PC, which already has an SSD. The hard drive only contained a few outdated games and some photos, so I didn't expect any issues. However, my system has become noticeably slower. For instance, whenever I right-click on files, the loading animation lingers for more than 5 seconds, and accessing my screenshots folder (or any photo folder) on Discord takes ages. It's worth noting that these folders are stored on my SSD, so I'm puzzled as to why the slowdown is happening.
5 Answers
Make sure your page file settings aren't pointing to the HDD, as that can create a bottleneck. I'd also recommend using CrystalDiskInfo to verify whether the hard drive has any problems.
It shouldn't really affect your SSD's speed, so it's possible your HDD might be faulty and that’s causing issues. Another thing to check is if Windows is defragmenting the drive in the background; that could really slow things down.
Sometimes old hard drives can cause issues when mixed with newer setups, especially if they've been in a laptop before. They just don't always play nicely together, and wear and tear can make things worse.
The slowdown is likely due to the hard drive’s transfer speed limitations. I have a similar setup with a fast SSD and a slower HDD, and I experience delays when transferring files between them. Any system apps, like File Explorer, may struggle when they need to access the HDD, which could affect overall performance.
This can be pretty normal with Windows 11. There are reports that it doesn’t interact well with HDDs, even if you're not actively using the files stored on them.
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