Disk upgrade

As my old DELL has become slow to boot, started to crank the disk randomly for a long period of time and freezing during this time, I decided to try out an SSD like other people in the group. My laptop was blazing with SSDs, but it lasted for about 3 months as the SSD crashed one day.

So I decided to try out a 7200 RPM disk as the old one was 5400 RPM.

I went ahead and imaged the new disk and also collected manual stats for a normal reboot with no new applications installed. I did not want to use a tool to benchmark before and after as it would tell me the stats, but not how it feels like. So I picked up my phone, paper and pencil and then started the timer.

Here are the stats for a DELL latitude – D620

                                   5400-RPM 7200-RPM

Dell boot appears                   0         0

Windows XP boot screen disappears  27        21
Blue background appears            54        38
Welcome to Windows, login screen   76        54
appears


Entered username and password       0         0
while timer is reset with
left hand.
Custom background picture           6         1
appears                                     
Quick launch bar appears           38        33
Desktop flashes after loading      83        48
all the icons
Disk activity                      183       Stopped.
                                  Still