Probably a 5200 RPM drive with a small buffer.  There is not much that one can do to increase speed, but to purchase a newer faster hard drive.  wWhich will lead to upgrading the motherboard/processor/case/video card/etc... and the list goes on...trust me I've been there!

Hope this helps,

Jared

If the drive was fitted incorrectly it could affect performance dramatically.

Depending on the Motherboard you have, the speed of the PRIMARY IDE channel may be faster than the SECONDARY IDE channel... ie. Prim. ATA100, Sec. ATA66

The hard disc should be on the primary IDE channel. On newer motherboards this offers a faster transfer rate than the secondary channel. The primary IDE connector is usually a different color than the secondary if a speed difference exists.

BUT, this ONLY works if a faster rated IDE cable is used on the primary channel. The faster rated cable is recognised by more and finer wires in the flat IDE ribbon and is should be labeled for its speed capacity.

If the Hard Drive is configured properly, then your slow speed is probably due mainly to ............

1. The overall performance of your old PC   

2. Insufficient RAM

3. System Overhead
Meaning all the junk that runs in the background if you let it. Virus Checkers, office applications, spyware, messenger, and a myriad of programs all self install in the startup processes when you switch on your PC. You may be able to achieve a significant performance increase by removing all the junk from autoloading, installing a spyware remover and just run your applications as you need them.

Dan, if your CD & HD Drives are on the same IDE channel, you'll get a big performance loss regardless of drive speed.....


I recently paid about £55 for an 80GB 7200 Seagate HD, best £55 I've spent in a long time.