Help with Laptop Hard Drive checkup

[OldGunney]

My laptop I use for running my trains has slowed down recently. I usually wait until the hard drive stops running non stop on boot up before running my JMRI train softwate. Usually takes about 10 mins.

Can not do a cmd/chkdsk. The window says I dont have admin access or some application has it locked. It's the main C: drive.

Anyone have a virus free sesource for me?

 

[Dan_]

I would make sure the slowdowns are caused by the hard drive using Task Manager. Otherwise, kinda weird you don't have administrative privileges. Only thing I've heard causing that is if your computer guy did that or you're using an antivirus other than (or along with) Windows Defender. If you are, try disabling it, then running chkdsk.

 

[OldGunney]

@Dan_ , With Task Manger up at the start I see the hard drive being used by various proccesses and usage at 100%. I've know quite a long time that it takes this Laptop about 10 minutes to settle down. I can start my JMRI and expect it to sart until what ever it's doing stops.

Laptop is a Dell Latitude L6400. Hard drive is a Hitachi 7200 with 145gig. Was wonering if I could install a SSD drive and copy the opertion system to my spare one. That failed since my SSD was too small for what was on the Dell hard drive. Was trying to use the Paragon hard disk manager and copy drives. When I put the laptop hard drive back in I got loading errors on boot up. Had to do a reset of the computer to get it back up to speed. It is running ok now.

Suspect the problem I introduced may have been using a Satat cable that was being used for my backup SSD drive. Maybe my desktop wrote something on the laptop drive. I did unplug the laptop batter while this was being done. On reinserting battery and power up the system went into BIOS mode since it didnt know what time or day it was. After that it failed to go into iwindows. Kept repairing and diagnosing wiht the usuall blue screen of "Something went wrong" message.

 

[Dan_]

Wait I'm confused, is your issue that your hard drive is slowing down the system or that you get bluescreens, or both?

 

[Dan_]

Either way, maybe just getting a sata ssd that has enough capacity would be the best solution.

 

[OldGunney]

Wait I'm confused, is your issue that your hard drive is slowing down the system or that you get bluescreens, or both?

The blue screen was a result of my attempt at trying to move OS over to a SSD, but I never even got started.

The slow Windows bootup is my concern. Though the CPU is pretty fast, the memory is a low DDR2 style. I believe that when we went over from Windows 7 to 10 was when it started boggin down.

 

[ChRoNo16]

Let's start with the simple solutions first.

In windows 10 running something like chkdsk is an administrative task, so before doing those commands right click the icon for CMD and select run as administrator- this is not a sign of a virus this is normal windows 10 behavior.

next, run a defrag or "optimize" the drive. Windows 10 by default says it runs it on a schedule, but i have noticed it not doing it.

then we can look into task manager to see whats slowing things down, the previous steps just give us a good starting place

 

[OldGunney]

I'll try that chkdsk cmd again and do a defrag.

I've found that turning off the location and interest icon on the task bar has sped things up.

 

[ChRoNo16]

its an older laptop, there is a script u can run in powershell that will get ridof a lot of the bloat that comes with windows 10, if all u do is use the laptop for trains

 

[Dan_]

I'll try that chkdsk cmd again and do a defrag.

I've found that turning off the location and interest icon on the task bar has sped things up.

You can also check task manager to see what processes are using resources the most. Often I find laptops slow down because of windows update doing things in the background.
I still recommend trying an SSD again. HDD are usually the cause of issues on old laptops.

 

[Dan_]

its an older laptop, there is a script u can run in powershell that will get ridof a lot of the bloat that comes with windows 10, if all u do is use the laptop for trains

What script is that?

 

[ChRoNo16]

What script is that?

It's called decrapify, this guy i watch on youtube did a video about it

 

[KarekCat]

I'll try that chkdsk cmd again and do a defrag.

I've found that turning off the location and interest icon on the task bar has sped things up.

Make sure you run Command Prompt as an Admin (right-click, Run as Administrator), otherwise it'll complain about permissions.

As for why an SSD swap would cause problems? That's likely related to driver issues. Windows is installed with quite a few assumptions based on the hardware, and if you swap out the wrong parts, or too many it can ruin the installation. You may want to consider a fresh install of Windows, if that's an option, but do not do it without backing up your stuff, and product keys.

 

[OldGunney]

Make sure you run Command Prompt as an Admin (right-click, Run as Administrator), otherwise it'll complain about permissions.

As for why an SSD swap would cause problems? That's likely related to driver issues. Windows is installed with quite a few assumptions based on the hardware, and if you swap out the wrong parts, or too many it can ruin the installation. You may want to consider a fresh install of Windows, if that's an option, but do not do it without backing up your stuff, and product keys.

I'm gonna let this alone now. I've been deleting some old files and photos and boot up is a lot faster. Under 2 minutes now. Thanks for the advice.

 

[shiryu_libra]

Don't worry to much about spanish text in the pictures, the screen is the same at english setups. that said

try to do this

If you go win + r
And write down services.msc


It opens a window about all the services for the system
We will search for the services to disable the ones that makes you laptop slow

Sysmain, stop de services and disable it

There's another one at the end of the name said (BITS), stop it and disable it

Search, stop and disable it

With these 3 services, it would feel better and responsive

Now let's move to the configuration
Let's go to the color screen and personalized menu, disable transparency, it will easy the slow behavior at 50%

Now let's go to the configuration of the system by opening

Win+e
At the left side go to the item "This PC" right click on it and go properties

At the settings window look at the right side middle section to find the advanced system settings


then appears another window, and select the "advanced options tab"


inside that tab; there's the Performance setting, click at the configuration button


inside the settings there's options selectors, and we goin to select performance radio box


click at the ok button, and we close all the previous windows

all those settings are the ones I disable in any PC i got my hands on, simply cuz i can, and i dont like that windows enviroment scrub my time when am in a hurry

hope it helps,

 

[Digital Lode]

Don't worry to much about spanish text in the pictures, the screen is the same at english setups. that said

try to do this

If you go win + r
And write down services.msc
View attachment 7112

It opens a window about all the services for the system
We will search for the services to disable the ones that makes you laptop slow

Sysmain, stop de services and disable it
View attachment 7113
There's another one at the end of the name said (BITS), stop it and disable it
View attachment 7114
Search, stop and disable it
View attachment 7115
With these 3 services, it would feel better and responsive

Now let's move to the configuration
Let's go to the color screen and personalized menu, disable transparency, it will easy the slow behavior at 50%
View attachment 7116
Now let's go to the configuration of the system by opening

Win+e
At the left side go to the item "This PC" right click on it and go properties
View attachment 7117
At the settings window look at the right side middle section to find the advanced system settings
View attachment 7118

then appears another window, and select the "advanced options tab"
View attachment 7119

inside that tab; there's the Performance setting, click at the configuration button
View attachment 7120

inside the settings there's options selectors, and we goin to select performance radio box
View attachment 7121

click at the ok button, and we close all the previous windows

all those settings are the ones I disable in any PC i got my hands on, simply cuz i can, and i dont like that windows enviroment scrub my time when am in a hurry

hope it helps,

As supplemental info to what Shiryu posted above, here is a link to a site which gives good advice regarding Windows Services. I've been using this site since XP.

Black Viper's Windows 10 Service Configurations - Black Viper | BlackViper.Com

www.blackviper.com

 

[shiryu_libra]

As supplemental info to what Shiryu posted above, here is a link to a site which gives good advice regarding Windows Services. I've been using this site since XP.

Black Viper's Windows 10 Service Configurations - Black Viper | BlackViper.Com

www.blackviper.com

black viper is the best, since win7 give the info u need

 

[Animalllllll]

I'm gonna let this alone now. I've been deleting some old files and photos and boot up is a lot faster. Under 2 minutes now. Thanks for the advice.

If you have a USB drive then you can try this. ?

Install and run your train program from a USB thumb drive. It might help determine if your hdd is failing and even the admin privileges issue.
When you begin the train program installation choose custom and navigate it to install on the usb. I'd suggest using a decently fast usb3 drive and port and create a folder called Programs.

Also, for the privileges issue, make sure when you do install programs they go to "C:\Program Files" and not just plopped in the "C:\" root directory.

One last suggestion. If you think your hdd is failing then best to backup anything you don't wish to lose to another drive and/or upload to a cloud storage service.

Reading your last post Gunney, it seems cleaning out some of the saved porn solved the problem.

 

[OldGunney]

Welcome back Animallll! Cant delete the porn. It's of RedKilla and I need a luagh every now and then.

In process of saving vital files to try Migrating OS to SSD drive again. I got to remember not using a Sata cable that was connected to G: drive where my Experience Videos are saved to. I am sure the mess up first time was I was using that cable to connect to my laptop drive. I found out a few days ago my video capture was causing my game to crash alot. Found the problem was the video was going back to my User folder on C: drive. Must be in that short time of boot up to copy drives the Experience App must be writting to its destination drive for some reason.