Suspect dying HD

Try starting the laptop in safe mode to see if it responds quicker, if it does then start normally and use Taskmanager's startup tab to see what apps are loading at start up and the impact they have, see if disabling some help (only if they are not essential for you).
You could try giving the laptop a couple of days to make sure any updates have been installed then if no improvement try disabling hibernation and fast start up if enabled to see if start and shutdown improve, try disabling the sysmain service if using a spinner drive, this stops Windows from loading from the pre fetch folder, disable indexing, select high performance plan in power options.
All the above should be temporary changes just for trouble shooting purposes, make sure you understand how to revert the changes once done.
Use CrystalDiskInfo to show smart info for the drive, look for any problem areas such as a high re allocated sector count and failed spin ups.
If you can read and write to the drive without issues (try with a large folder, copying back and forth) then slow start up and shutdown could just be software related not necessarily the sign of a dying HDD.

lenberman said:

Acer Aspire E55-575 Laptop W10/1903

Laptop was running slow so I backed up and reloaded Windows 10 from the tool. I didn't save any existing files since I would reload from backup. The computer still seamed slow and took 10 minutes to shut down and 4 to boot. I ran defrag and chkdsk /r /f /x. The computer is faster but still takes 2 - 3 minutes to boot an shutdown takes 3 minutes also. I am suspecting the hard drive, what are your thoughts. Your help is appreciated.
Len
San Diego, CA

Download HDtune.
try a clean boot
open taskmanager and check out what programs are loading.
disable any suspect programs.
Had slow boot myself because of dying HD . Apparently the bios was having a hard time
finding the drive and assigning a drive letter.
replaced it with a ssd and now boots normal.

HD Tune website

Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

I always tell people the first thing to do when suspecting a bad drive is to backup the data. After you can do all the testing whichever way you choose.

Oh, and before downloading hundred's of programs, you could simply start with Windows' built-in tool - Right click the drive, click Properties, click the Tool's tab, under error checking click "Check". Go from there.

Good luck.

If you're now having problems booting and want to test your disk, download an iso for a live boot disk (using another PC of course). E.g.
Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru

You will need to know how to create a bootbale disk from that iso- there are some instructions as to how to do so in the tutorial here on creating a bootable disk to install Win 10- but you'd use the iso from the link I posted.

You can then boot your PC from that disk and run HD Tune- on that disk- Health and Error scan tabs.

You then have a useful tool and you will know the state of your disk.
You can also then extract data from your disk using tools on Kyhi's boot disk if needed where it is feasible to do so.


Note: if you followed the advice tirelessly repeated by tenforums members to use disk imaging routinely, you would have a quite easy means to put everything back on a new disk- if needed- and be up and running again in a couple of hours or so.

E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + large enough external storage. Plus the act of creating an image performs a check on the integrity of everything on partitions imaged.

It is normal for Safe Mode to require your password.

You might try booting your machine with Windows 10 installation media...
if you don't have Win 10 media, 8 would probably work...

At the Install screen, click on "REPAIR" on the lower left... Then Troubleshoot... Advanced..

Select Command Prompt and type in the following...

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot

If that gives an error, use...
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot

Taken from elsewhere in these forums.

Have you ever actually run a disk check to see if you're experiencing problems with the number of reallocated sectors for example?

HDTune free (softpedia.com e.g.) Health and Error Scan tabs.

If in fact your disk is slowly dying you could be wasting your time, and you don't want to do that.

If it's ok, start routinely using disk imaging as tenforums members o tirelessly recommend- then you can often avoid doing a clean install when things go wrong plus security vs virus/theft/flood and a full backup. e.g. Macrium Reflect (free-paid).