Safari much faster after new HDD, but why exactly?

[Glenn82]

I've got a question, but I'm afraid it's an incredibly naive one...

My HDD crashed last week and a new one was installed, I have some idea why Safari runs smooth again, but I'm not 100% sure, if someone has the patience to help this noob figuring it out that'd be much appreciated.

After two years Safari reacted much slower as it did in the beginning, I tried to change DNS settings but it had no effect to the speed.

Safari works great now and want to keep it this way, are there things I can do to keep it running smoothly, or things I should definitely not do?

All tips are more than welcome.

PS: I know the basics, like adding open DNS servers, clearing cache, getting rid of plug-ins, but these things didn't help me in the past, the problem was elsewhere, I just don't know where exactly.

 

[Gav2k]

Did you lose everything or restore from a backup?

 

[Glenn82]

I lost everything, I had my most important files backed up but just copied them and manually and installed everything else, so I got a brand new computer, so to speak.

 

[Weaselboy]

Was Safari just getting slow toward the end? As a drive is beginning to fail, app will start to slow and you will see a lot of beachballs. It sounds like things are functioning normally now and it was just slow before from a failing drive.

 

[Glenn82]

It's been slow for a while, about a year I guess.
Finder was slow for the last months, due to my dying HDD, but I'm not sure about Safari.