Low Performance and Inaccessible partition

When I turned on my Thinkpad Edge 13 it is very slow. It takes long time to boot (~ 5 minutes). I can still copy and paste files from primary partition. Starting a program is painfully slow. I don't know any reason which caused this problem; No update or any other changes.

It is the same in “Safe Mode”, relatively faster than above but still very slow. It started all of a sudden, not a gradual increase.

I monitored the processors and memory from Task Manager. There is nothing running extra. Enough memory.

When I click “ My computer”
The file is opened up, I can see the partitions. However it does not load 100% (green bar in the address bar never reaches to 100%). I cannot access recovery partition (Q .

i) I want to create a recovery CD from partition Q: however I cannot access it. Below is what happens.

Double click on Q, hanging around 5 minutes then gives the following error;
“Q: Application not found”

Right click, then click “Open”, hanging for several minutes then gives the following error;
“Q: is not accessible
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error”

These steps above give the same results in “Safe Mode” too.

ii) From Disk Management, I can see all partitions as Healthy. Q: partition is shown as RAW, as opposed to NTFS for other partitions, I don’t know what it means.

iii) When I tried to use Rescue & Recover 4 option (through startup or windows) , it never boots up. It hangs on start up page for several hours then gives error.

iv) I was able to scan with “Disk Errors and Repairs” all partitions other than recovery Partition (Q . Q is not accessible. Scans with other partitions did not give a error.

v) Malware and virus scans were clear.

There is not a restore point before this problem started.
I called Lenovo Support for help, they directly wanted to sell $40 CDs.

Any Help Appreciated
Thanks

 

Maybe you want to run the hard drive diagnostic from the toolbox.

 

Can you identify a point at which this sluggish performance began? I don't have any direct experience with this machine, but...

Could you post a list of running processes and/or tell us what you have sitting in the system tray? Are you running a 32- or 64-bit version of Windows (and which version) (or something else)?

 

Thank you for your suggestions. After I spent a week to figure out the problem (learning about recovery softwares, Linux, disk management etc.), it looks like it is a hard drive failure. I have installed a new OS, it is the same, slow. I noticed an intermittent noise from hard drive.

When I run Ubuntu from a USB drive, it was working fine.

What I have been struggling for was to save my factory recovery partition (to make recovery CD. I could not save my recovery partition. I have accessed my recovery partition using Ubuntu from a USB drive and copy all files to another drive. However, it gives an error "the files can not be found" when I try to create recovery DVD. I need to purchase a new recovery DVD from Lenovo ($45 )

A lesson; Create your recovery DVDs as soon as you get your computer.

Thanks