slow boot, slowdown later

2 issues: 1) when I boot on 1 computer, the 'hardware scan' process takes about 1 minute. when I moove that drive to another computer (removable IDE drive rack) this does not happen. Shoud I/How do I block the hardware scan? 2) After running 8.0 for over an hour, it slows down. Excessive disk thrashing. It takes 1 min 38 seconds to load Kpat (freecell for linux). vs. 27 seconds after a couple of minutes (while on net with mai/browser open. Is this a swap issue? 3) I need tar to open a xbasic download. It's not on my computer! find / -iname tar responds with nothing. I thought this was a basic command, now I worried as to what else is gone/missing. Help . . .