A user reports that opening files and saving documents now takes noticeably longer than it did last week. The drive-activity LED stays lit for an extended time during every operation. Which of the following is the MOST likely underlying cause of this symptom?
Constantly increasing read/write times-especially when the storage LED shows repeated access-are classic signs that the hard drive is struggling to retrieve data. Mechanical drives will repeatedly retry reads when sectors are wearing out, and S.M.A.R.T. logs often show rising re-allocation or error counts just before a failure. While factors such as file-system fragmentation or an outdated storage-controller driver can contribute to slow performance, an impending hard-drive failure is the most common and urgent root cause that should be addressed first by backing up data and replacing the drive.
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