
Originally Posted by
peterb
Replacing the cable will not affect your data. If it is faulty, NOT replacing your cable certainly will!
As a Sata cable is under £5, its worth replacing anyway - it is the interface between your data and your computer.
Don't go for the cheapest you can find though, not all cables are equal, and some of the cheap ones are truly horrible.
I find the latching connectors are slightly more robust, and of course less likely to shake loose.
Could a faulty cable cause slow boot and shutdown. Well, yes, if there are lots of unsuccessful read and writes, but if it is that bad, I think it would manifest itself in other ways. The slow boot times I think is more likely to be your AV scanner (as I mentioned in one of your other threads)