This morning all seemed normal except a message on my computer that said that one of my three hard drives was unable to be defragged. I clicked on it and lo and behold all files were gone. Only a file that said #$%vault ( something like that). The computer seemed to run well otherwise but seemed fairly slow in going to web pages. I tried a system restore and then noted it took forever for the computer to boot and finish. The hourglass was on constantly. I then re clicked on the offending drive. Still nothing. Another message came up that the drive was unreadable. I went to file management and tried to reformat that drive ( I have the contents of that drive ( mainly pictures ) on an external drive ) and no go. It wouldn't reformat. So I must conclude the drive has died. When I get home I will try and locate which of the three sata cables is going to that drive ( probably trial and error) and disconnect it. I believe the extremely long boot is probably because it is trying to scan or access that bad drive and with it removed it should restore it to its speedy self. Does this sound like a reasonable scenario?
P.S. Is there a way to know which sata cable is going to which hard drive or is it merely pull and reboot
P.P.S. The below sig is old. I am using XP Home with upgraded X2 processor and 2 GB ram