Vista - Slow hard drive access times, gets slower with time!

This is my 3rd fresh clean install, using both Vista x86 and x64, and all new hardware as well (new mobo, HD's, cpu, ram, etc):

symptom:
after a day of two of creating a user account, the HD access starts to become excruciatingly slow, and gets slower with time. When you use explorer and want to access the Hard drives, the system takes 3-7 seconds to open the folder. When browsing pictures, it takes 3-6 seconds to switch to the next, etc.
Creating a new user account solves the problem temporarily, until a day or two passes, and then the same thing starts to happen!

What I've tried so far:
- Disabled Indexing (windows Search service)
- Disabled Hard Drive Indexing
- Tried booting up as IDE, as well as AHCI
- Created new install with RAID0, and same issue.

System:
* e8400
* Asus P5Q-E with latest bios
* 2 x 320 WD 3200AAKS Sata drives, 1 x 250 WD 2500AAKS Sata drive
* Asus SATA DVDRW drive
* 4 GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 (DDR2-800)


I've noticed this problem accelerates even more when using the "sleep" power mode. But even when disabling this, It still happens.

I've googled for over 2 weeks. I've done 3 fresh installs, I've replaced all the HW, and used 3 different copies of Vista Ultimate, with same results!

UPDATE: here is a video of the problem:
YouTube - Windows Vista Hard Drive performance issue

Instead of disabling indexing in the services menu, try setting it to manual. In your hard drive's property sheet, on the general tab, check 'index this drive for faster searching'. See how that works?

Btw, are there any other services you've disabled? That may be a problem. Vista is pretty good about services, unlike XP, and you really don't need to go disabling a bunch of them. Doing so may cause more problems than it's worth.

However, if you must, I would advise setting services you don't want to manual... just in case... and follow Viper's guide: http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

I haven't touched any other services except "windows search". I just tried your suggestion, and still same issue

there is gotta be something I'm missing.

Hi Ssabripo,

How old is your HDD, Motherboard and cables?

Have you made sure to install your chipset drivers?

brand new. Like I said, I replaced most of the parts. New mobo and CPU from newegg, and new HD's directly from Western Digital

which chipset drivers? are you talking about these:

* Intel(R) P45/ICH10R Chipset Software Installation Utility WHQL V9.0.0.1009 for Windows XP/Vista & 64bit XP/Vista.

or these:

* Marvell 88SE6111 SATA Controller Driver V1.2.0.57 for Windows XP/Vista & 64bit XP/Vista.

Tried disabling Superfetch and defragmenting your HDD with a good tool like O&O Defrag?

superfetch disabled, and did a quick defrag. Still no dice.

when opening Windows Explorer, the top status bar has a green bar that goes from left to right....in my case, when double clicking on a drive/folder, that bar moves very slowly to about 1/4 of the way (takes about 5-7 seconds now), and then quickly finishes (1-2 seconds), and then it opens the request.

In a fresh new account, it does that almost immediately, so you really don't even see the little green bar.

I mean the Intel chipset drivers. The Marvell reference must be a typo... Marvell is your lan ports and has nothing to do with SATA drives or drivers, which are included in the Intel chipset drivers.

Maybe it's a power setting? Go to Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/Power Options. Check the High Performance box and then click 'change plan settings'. Then click 'Advanced Power Settings' and expand the + by Hard Disk. Make sure the disk is set to power off never.

Btw, you don't want to disable superfetch.