File system check for Windows

[seven2go]

Open My Computer, right click the C drive, select properties, tools, CHECK NOW, check BOTH check boxes and APPLY.
The next time your computer boots it will check the system files for inconsistencies.
Your slow down is more likely related to the number of bullshit items which automatically launch at startup.
Type msconfig in the search box and go to the STARTUP tab.
UNCHECK every single thing except your antivirus and security apps.
That doesn't mean anything becomes unavailable when you NEED it.......it just means they aren't sitting there sucking resources like a Hoover.......

You might short of RAM too.

 

[looseliam]

There may be a bit more than just simple file system problems going on. Take a look in your event viewer and see if there are any errors relating to the harddrive.

Also, is your computer home-built, or purchased from a major manufacturer? If the latter, are all the bundled software still installed?

Is the slow-down recent? If so, can you remember anything from around that time - something you may have downloaded, or installed?

 

[trinket]

You boys are offering up the usual great advice to the original poster!

Also, is your computer home-built, or purchased from a major manufacturer? If the latter, are all the bundled software still installed?

That's a good point, too. I like http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ at removing pre-loaded junk; which, to be completely fair, is present as the deals for it can subsidize the low costs the marker can charge for pre-built systems these days where there's not much of a margin and stiff competition!

 

[Corny]

Fragmentation is usually a non-issue in after WinXP.
Checkdisk doesn't do any defrag anyway. So if it gets faster after chkdsk, there is a different problem, maybe with indexing or worse. Liam might be right on the money here.

 

[Corny]

yes, there are programs out there because people with the "omg i need to defrag every other month" are willing to pay money for it.
that doesn't mean that it is needed.

 

[looseliam]

I think what corny's trying to say (sorry for putting words in your mouth) is that although fragmentation still occurs, it is not the bottleneck it once was as the OS has evolved with the file system.

Now on DOS, I'd wuvs me some defrag =]

 

[Corny]

if at all that "bottleneck" would be during startup. once windows is running it doesn't need many harddrive seeks. even huge data like movies that you MIGHT be cutting are stored mostly sequential, with only a few seeks in between. unless you are someone who works with a huge amount of small files at the same time, fragmentation is not a problem.

 

[MindBlast]

Why bother arguing about fragmentation when the guy's hard drive is clearly failing? Well, maybe not clearly, but that would be my highly likely guess.

Spinrite is a really good utility but it's not cheap.
I'd recommend just getting a new hard drive and mirroring your current one onto it, then formatting your current one. Worst case scenario (in terms of money spent), you now have an OS hard drive and a storage hard drive that both work. Otherwise you've also fixed the problem and have 1 working hard drive, which is still good.

Hard drives are cheap these days.

 

[Corny]

^ because giancarlo made that out as a possible culprit for the slow down. and it's completely bogus, even IF fragmentation had such a tremendous impact it wouldn't be that severe every few weeks. i have less than 2% fragmentation on any harddrive in my win7 box which is over 1.5 years old.

you are right though . .something is degenerating the drive too quickly. a wild guess: the catalogue is faulty and reports wrong sizes. windows believes the HD is almost full and stops using the swap file. chkdsk corrects the descriptors and swap is being used again.
i have seen this happen a few times with fat16/32, but never with ntfs though.

 

[GoErectus]

Why bother arguing about fragmentation when the guy's hard drive is clearly failing? Well, maybe not clearly, but that would be my highly likely guess. ...

I have to agree with MindBlast. A lot of the advice given deals with the symptoms. You should investigate what causes chkdsk to appear again and again. A failure of your hard drive is most likely.

SpinRite is an option. But you might like these alternatives: HDtune or HDDscan (use Bing or Google, i'm new here .. having some trouble with inserting links )

You could investigate, but i recommend backing up your data first. Do it while you still can !

Good luck with it.

 

[Corny]

not symptons of a direct hard drive failure. but symptoms of a failing harddrive, soon to have a hard drive failure.

 

[looseliam]

To open the event viewer, hold the 'start' button and press 'r'

In the run dialog box type 'eventvwr' and press enter.

There will be a whole bunch of entries. You'll want to look for anything with a source of 'disk/Disk' - under 'system' IIRC. I can't remember in vista or xp but I know with 7 you can create a custom view to pull only the errors for which you're looking. I can walk you through it, if you'd like.

 

[GoErectus]

Does that have to do with the processes found in Windows Task Manager?

MsConfig is a tool to give you an overview of programs and services that are started automatically with Windows. So yes, when you call the Taskmanager you'll find them there (unless you disabled them starting with msconfig )

For examining the EventViewer, see the advice of looseliam (although i though the exact command was: eventvwr.msc -hmm-)

It's from a manufacturer. I'm not sure what you mean by "bundled software". The slow-down was recent but it only seems to occur from certain websites. I should also mention that when my PC freezes up and I have to manually restart, my firewall is automatically disabled.

Bundled software is the software that came with your Windows version. It's usually crap or time limited (sorry, my opinion). It's actually the first thing i get rid off when i've bought a new computer. Or just reinstall it, that's always an option

Could you explain what you mean by saying that slow down seems to be related to certain websites? Crowded websites? And then the thing with your firewall Very strange. May i ask what firewall and/or antivirus program you're using? Although that may be another problem all together ... (programs eating at the computer's resources)

My hard drive is almost ten years old and it has only crashed once.

Really? Damn, why am i never that lucky That said, 10 years is really really old. Supporting the idea that the harddrive might be on its last toes.

The way i see it the best way to act here is (in order of simplicity):

1. check the eventviewer (any red indicators linked to your harddrive?)

2. read the harddrive's SMART values (use speedfan or something like that) (since i can't link -i hate this newbie status- see: almico.com/sfarticle.php?id=2 )

3. if you find anything that worries you concerning your harddrive, give it a scan (see the before mentioned programs)

3. if you can't find anything, then look for other faulty items 'in your computer'

Just my piece of advice