Windows 7 very slow.

mossie

Hi.

I recently had to replace my hard drive after the old one failed. I restored my system from an image and since then everything has been much slower than normal. Opening firefox can take 30+ seconds, clicking on a tab can take 4 or more seconds before it responds. Typing in the search box on the start menu takes as long as ten seconds to find a program. Right click on the desktop or folder 10+ seconds for context menu to appear.

I tried refreshing windows by doing an upgrade install but this had no effect and I am loath to do a full wipe and reinstall as I am not anxious to have to reinstall all my programs again. Any ideas of what might be causing the slow down and how to cure it?

Thanks.

Mossie

My system Win 7 Home, 4GB, Intel Q6600 quad core cpu, Maxtor 1.5 TB HDD (4 partitions) 1 dvd burner, 1 blu-ray.

woolymammoth

is the new disk the exact same as the old one?

You could try a disk scan & repair, make sure all drivers are correct & up to date, a full & proper defrag (Auslogics with defrag & optomise, or a windows defrag). how long does the PC take to start?

Ronan_

woolymammoth wrote: »

is the new disk the exact same as the old one?

You could try a disk scan & repair, make sure all drivers are correct & up to date, a full & proper defrag (Auslogics with defrag & optomise, or a windows defrag). how long does the PC take to start?

Also, how many processes are running in task manager?
You're PC has a good spec, there must be something crazy going on.

downwithpeace

I had a similar issue when i first installed win7, it was almost like the system was 5-10 seconds behind real time and applications were even further behind. I did a little checking online but didn't find the cause so i went ahead and reinstalled the OS again, second installation was fine.

Snap2010

You may need to reinstall the OS as 7 may not have properly 'connected' with this new drive

freeze4real

Any update on this. Mine was super fast before and now it's slow. Way to slow .

mossie

freeze4real wrote: »

Any update on this. Mine was super fast before and now it's slow. Way to slow .

Sorry i didn't get back on this before now. I am still having the same problem, still very slow and a huge lag between clicking and getting a response. I reinstalled Windows and this did not solve the problem. Off work this week so having another go now...

Odaise Gaelach

Are you sure that your new hard disk drive isn't simply slower than your old one?

mossie

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

Are you sure that your new hard disk drive isn't simply slower than your old one?

It's supposed to be faster, but even if it was slower it wouldn't explain the slowness of everything.

Fysh

Things to check:

• What's running in your processes list?
• What's running on startup? (Check this via MSConfig)
• Do you have the right drivers for your hardware?
• Do you have anti-virus installed and updating correctly?
• Does disabling indexing on all partitions make any difference?
• Do you have both Google Search and Windows Desktop Search installed?

If none of those give you any indication as to where the problem is, I'd be going to the Sysinternals Utilities page on the MS website and fetching Process Explorer and Process Monitor to try and identify the problem.

If that still didn't get me to the bottom of it, I'd make an image of my Windows 7 partition (using something like Acronis True Image), delete the Windows 7 partition, do a clean install and see if the issue persisted.

At that point if it was still acting up, I'd be running hardware diagnostics on everything in the box, and probably tearing my hair out...

mossie

Fysh wrote: »

Things to check:

• What's running in your processes list?
• What's running on startup? (Check this via MSConfig)
• Do you have the right drivers for your hardware?
• Do you have anti-virus installed and updating correctly?
• Does disabling indexing on all partitions make any difference?
• Do you have both Google Search and Windows Desktop Search installed?

If none of those give you any indication as to where the problem is, I'd be going to the Sysinternals Utilities page on the MS website and fetching Process Explorer and Process Monitor to try and identify the problem.

If that still didn't get me to the bottom of it, I'd make an image of my Windows 7 partition (using something like Acronis True Image), delete the Windows 7 partition, do a clean install and see if the issue persisted.

At that point if it was still acting up, I'd be running hardware diagnostics on everything in the box, and probably tearing my hair out...

I've done pretty much everything you described up to and including tearing my hair out:)

I'm looking at putting my windows partition on my second hard drive to see it that helps, if not I'm out of options.

mossie

mossie wrote: »

I've done pretty much everything you described up to and including tearing my hair out:)

I'm looking at putting my windows partition on my second hard drive to see it that helps, if not I'm out of options.

Finally seems to be solved. Wiped and installed windows on my second HD and seems much smoother so far. thanks for all suggestions.

Capt'n Midnight

a bit late now, I was going to suggest you check device manager for anything untoward

out of curiousity what was the slow backup imaged with ?

mossie

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

a bit late now, I was going to suggest you check device manager for anything untoward

out of curiousity what was the slow backup imaged with ?

Acronis True Image 2010

Nothingbetter2d

both my win7 os's had to be reinstalled twice so far

one pc kept getting .net framework corruption (basically any program that needed .net framework wouldnt install)

the other pc kept getting windows installer corruption preventing any software that needed the windows installer to install the software... even win7 sp1 wouldnt go on

oddly my vista machine gives me no trouble since sp2 was released

mossie

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

both my win7 os's had to be reinstalled twice so far

one pc kept getting .net framework corruption (basically any program that needed .net framework wouldnt install)

the other pc kept getting windows installer corruption preventing any software that needed the windows installer to install the software... even win7 sp1 wouldnt go on

oddly my vista machine gives me no trouble since sp2 was released

This is my first Win7 problem and seems to be hardware related, specifically a Western Digital HD. Vista was a huge nightmare though..