Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

LoganT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 9, 2007
2,382
134
I am on Snow Leopard btw. I have a 1 TB external HD that I'm using with Firewire 400 and I've noticed that it seems to slow down my computer. Like for instance I'll boot up my computer and it will take forever for it to start up. Then, as soon as I turn off my drive it boots up immediately. Or I'll use Spotlight and then basically it gets stuck with a spinning beach ball and as soon as I turn off the drive everything is fast again.
 
It could be that either the external disk itself is dying, or the enclosure the disk is in is dying.

I had a 750GB standard IDE disk that was a-ok, but the firewire 400 enclosure it was in went bad. Trying to access the drive would beach-ball all over the place, slow down the machine, etc.

Replace the disk or the enclosure.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.