Computer working very slow

I have a Seagate External Hard drive. My son had some picture files

on his laptop that were taking up too much of his computer. He ask

if he could store them on the Seagate and I burn them to DVD.  After he

put them on the Seagate (160 gig) we hooked up the Seagate to my computer.

I went to Windows Explorer and when I clicked on one of his folders, my

computer went back to the desktop. I tried it a second time and this time, I

got a note to restore active desktop. I think I clicked on the right answer.

Every since then the computer has been going very very slow.  I booted the

computer in to safe mode. Ran adaware. Nothing there. I ran Norton. Nothing showed

up. I then did a system restore to a few days ago.After waiting ten minutes for

the computer to reboot, it is still running slow. What happened?

The only thing I have added to the computer is Magic Tune for my new monitor.

I am going to take that off, but when I started typing this message, I clicked on

"Control Panel"   "Add/remove programs" and it still hasn't showed up yet.

I am on cable and when I clicked on "Internet" it took two minutes for my start up

page to show up. But from there to here was quick.

Anyone know what is going on?

The computer was acting fine until I clicked on the folder in Seagate.

I have a 4550. Windows XP.

Thanks,

Bill

 

I have Zone Alarm Pro and it still hasn't loaded. Also, on my toolbar at the bottom,

I now have "My documents" which wasn't there before. And when I click on "display"

in the control panel, where it shows my desktop, it shows what looks like a bag or

bucket in the lower right hand corner. This is very strange.