HP laptop running very slow. Can't defrag hdd

firemansam · 13 Sep 2016

Hi guys.

Recently my girlfriend's laptop has been running ridiculously slow. Slow enough that we both try to avoid using it anymore. My 4 year old desktop is more responsive.

I've cleared off some of the unnecessary files that were cluttering up her hard drive and now I've been trying to defrag her hdd. The defragger analyses it and tells me 40% is fragmented. I run the optimize option and it reanalyses it then starts defragging process. It says pass 1: 0% relocated. It stays on 0% and after awhile just goes back to 40% fragmented.

Can anybody help with my defrag problem and also is there anything else you can tell me that will help me speed her laptop back up?

Thanks

TairikuOkami · 13 Sep 2016

Windows will not defragment system restore files, hibernation, pagefile, etc.
Download WC.bat and run it as admin, it will perform Windows cleanup.
You can also install CCleaner and Wise Care for additional cleaning.
It would not hurt to run some malware scan with Emsisoft scanner.

You should also check for new drivers, you can use Driver Easy to find out, what is missing and then you can google it and download it faster from manufacturer's webpage or from softpedia.

firemansam · 13 Sep 2016

I have run cccleaner as I already had that on the PC. I have also run Malwarebytes and it has come up with 0 results. I can't update drivers at the moment because I'm not currently connected to the internet but I'll try as soon as I can. Will see if I can run WC.bat with my phone data

RolandJS · 15 Sep 2016

Your HD may be more likely having a "logical", rather than a physical, problem. Do you have recent restorable full images of your Data partition? Auslogics Disk Defrag has a HD checking section, one tab is marked S.M.A.R.T. -- see if anything comes up yellow or red instead of green. I have used both Auslogics Disk Defrag [earlier] and Piriform's Defraggler [presently] - maybe consider trying one of the two? Most important -- please have recent restorable full image backups of your Data partition, folders and files in case a hard-drive "fixer-upper" and/or a Windows reinstall becomes necessary.

addendum: underlined a sentence to indicate: SMART is more important than defrag attempt :)

dalchina · 15 Sep 2016

Hi, you need to approach this logically. We need some info else we're playing guessing games.
You should not need to run a disk defragmenter.

1. Please post a screenshot of your task manager
If a column (say CPU) is showing high usage, click if to show the processes using most CPU are at the top of the column.
Repeat for any others.

2. Download and install Crystal diskinfo to check your disk's SMART parameters.
Please post a screenshot of that.

3. Do a clean boot.
Clean Boot - Perform in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts - Windows 10 Forums
(part 1).
Is the laptop more responsive?

4. Run chkdsk as a matter of routine:
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!

firemansam · 20 Sep 2016

Ok I have completed all your steps except for the clean boot which I will do as soon as I have finished creating a disk image. Thankyou.

Here are the files you requested:

dalchina · 20 Sep 2016

Good- that's encouraging so far.. the task manager certainly doesn't suggest a reason for things being slow, although the top two items are not what I'd expect. With no browser running I'd like to see 1% or lower, when no 3rd party programs running that might consume resources..

Once you've tried a clean boot to eliminate 3rd party program effects, also download and run Crystal Diskmark to test your disk throughput.