Slow Boots & 100% Disk Usage, But Nothing Really Using It

Defragment your hard disk drive do not defragment SSD drive.

Scan your computer for malware infection with MalwareBytes.

Hi,

To catch the culprit you must use Windows Performance Toolkit to record a trace for 1 or 2 min.

You can find here a tutorial on how to install and use the Tool. but instead of recording a boot trace you will record a general trace using this parameters - justpaste.it

Record the trace, zip it and share it via a transfert file website. I will analyze it ...

See you.

@FreeBooter: The system is set to defrag weekly, was last done on the 5th.

@zinou: Dropbox - 10-07-2017.11-35-24.etl

@axe0: It's an Inspiron 3521, so probably about 5 years old if I had to guess...

Error Scan:


Health Report:

Code:

HD Tune: ST500LM0ST500LM012 HN-M5 Health
ID                               Current  Worst    ThresholdData      Status   
(01) Raw Read Error Rate         100      100      51       4         Ok       
(02) Throughput Performance      252      252      0        0         Ok       
(03) Spin Up Time                92       89       25       2465      Ok       
(04) Start/Stop Count            98       98       0        2447      Ok       
(05) Reallocated Sector Count    252      252      10       0         Ok       
(07) Seek Error Rate             252      252      51       0         Ok       
(08) Seek Time Performance       252      252      15       0         Ok       
(09) Power On Hours Count        100      100      0        8227      Ok       
(0A) Spin Retry Count            252      252      51       0         Ok       
(0B) Calibration Retry Count     100      100      0        290       Ok       
(0C) Power Cycle Count           98       98       0        2397      Ok       
(0D) Soft Read Error Rate        100      100      0        0         Ok       
(B5) (unknown attribute)         100      100      0        17519660  Ok       
(BF) G-sense Error Rate          100      100      0        1495      Ok       
(C0) Power Off Retract Count     252      252      0        0         Ok       
(C1) Load Cycle Count            89       89       0        113294    Ok       
(C2) Temperature                 62       45       0        -131034   Ok       
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered      100      100      0        0         Ok       
(C4) Reallocated Event Count     252      252      0        0         Ok       
(C5) Current Pending Sector      252      252      0        0         Ok       
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable       252      252      0        0         Ok       
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count   200      200      0        0         Ok       
(C8) Write Error Rate            100      100      0        5770      Ok       
(F0) Head Flying Hours           100      100      0        8196      Ok       
(F1) (unknown attribute)         94       89       0        8325644   Ok       
(F2) (unknown attribute)         94       88       0        9284808   Ok       
(FE) (unknown attribute)         252      252      0        0         Ok       
Power On Time         : 8227
Health Status         : Ok

It seems slightly faster in Safe Mode, but it's still extremely slow...

I would like to have you run a Clean Boot.

How to perform a Clean Boot.

Warning: Disabling items in Services or Startup may leave your anitivirus disabled until the process is ended. For this reason I would suggest that you perform this process off line.

Press the keys to open Run, then type msconfig in the search box. This will open System Configuration.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, you should enter the password or provide confirmation.

(1) Click/tap on the General tab.

(2) Click/tap on the Selective startup option.

(3) Remove the check mark in the Load startup items check box.


4. Click on the Services tab.

5. Place a check mark in the Hide all Microsoft services check box, this will remove the Microsoft Services from the list but will still be running.

6. Click Disable all, this will remove all of the check marks in the Services list.



7. Click on Apply then OK



Click on Restart in the window that opens.

When the computer is restarted it will boot normally.

If the problem does not continue after the restart please do the following.

8. Divide the number of these services by two and you place checks in the first half of these, then restart the computer.

9. If the problem doesn't return in those services remove the checks and place checks in the remaining services and restart the computer.

10. When you find which half the service is in go on to the next step.

11. The half which has the service causing this problem remove half of the checks as you did previously to see which half has this service. Restart the computer.

12. If it isn't in the first half of these services, do the same with the last half of the services.

13. Once you have narrowed it down to the last three or four services remove the checks one at a time till you find the service at fault.

Once you have found the service post it in your topic. Do not take any action until I suggest the next step.

Already tried that, the issue persisted. Even tried a diagnostic startup, same thing.