i had this problem,i had to go into the command prompt function which is in accesories on the all programme section at thebottom left hand side of the window on start up home screen,you have to type with the keyboard,when you are the command prompt section type,chkdsk/f the reason for this problem could be acouple of thingc have you had an upgrade have you been loading new software,or perhaps you have formatted the main hard disc,or repaired yor disc anyway this should speed up your computer,the intellectral problem with your computer hard drive sounds like the ntfs system is all over the place making the computer slow by having to take longer searching for files, fat 32 ntfs xp systems need to have files tideier they are messy workers,i recomend defrag every week if a prolific user,this imformation is valid on windows xp pro ,maybe on other operating systems,when in command prompt function type chkdsk/f .
richard, January 2010