> I had the same problem with a Seagate SATA 150, ran the diagnostic test
> and was advised that the errors were acceptable but the drive was
> taking 30 minutes to unrar a DVD, when it usually takes two minutes.
> Didn't contact Seagate for an RMA because the drive was purchased from
> a shop that went out of business.
>
> The weird part about this incident is that O&O Defrag and Window's was
> not able to defrag the partitions. This happened a couple months ago
> and I can't remember the exact error message.


Hm interesting. actually, I found the error, and its tremendously
anticlimactic. In trying to remember what had changed on my system
since the slowdown, I found out that the problem actually came from an
installation of winamp 5.32. For some my computer had a huge allergic
reaction to the new winamp, even when *not* currently running. Even
with the winamp monitor (startup thing) off it was still slow.

I cant explain it, but after removing the program entirely and
downgrading to 2.9, my computer is running smooth again.

thanks for the help!

oliver