Very slow boot up vista?

[Glaucus]

Are there any common problems that cause this. Parents computer Gets into vista ok, but then takes about 10+minutes before you can use it.
Can't find any viruses or malware and no odd processes running at start up.

Is there any thing I can check/try, is there a free application to test hard drive and any other common problems with vista?

 

[CaptainCrash]

The drive manufacturer will have a diagnostic tool you can download from their website - EStools for Samsung, Data Lifeguard for WD, SeaTools for Seagate.

The fact that you haven't found any viruses/malware doesn't mean that they're not there, along with a shedload of other things which might cause slowdowns - to be honest, provided the hardware comes up with a clean bill of health, I think in your situation I'd just go for the nuke/reinstall option. It may not be the purist's course of action, but it's probably a good deal less time-consuming in the long run, rather than trying to identify/rectify a million and one possible causes with no guarantee of a satisfactory outcome.

 

[Idleman]

Is this a recent occurrence? And if so, have you tried restore or repair? Looking on the internet, there are so many different causes.

HDTune 2.55 is another good app.

 

[Glaucus]

Wish I could just install w7 on it, but haven't got any unused copies.

Running ws data lifeguard now.
Really don't want to reinstall, parents have thousands of files spread out everywhere and no second hard drive. But might be able to pull one of mine out temporarily.

 

[Rik1254]

Wish I could just install w7 on it, but haven't got any unused copies.

Running ws data lifeguard now.
Really don't want to reinstall, parents have thousands of files spread out everywhere and no second hard drive. But might be able to pull one of mine out temporarily.

Create a partition?

 

[Glaucus]

No problems with hard drive .

 

[Duke]

A few things to try, assuming you've already turned off any crap from starting up bar AV.

1. Check Disk chkdsk c: /r in cmd box
2. Mem test
3. System File Checker sfc /scannow in cmd box
4. CCleaner to clear all temp files etc incase the AV is scanning them all or something odd like that

 

[RJC]

I had similar issues on a Dell machine running XP, would take a age do anything! I thought it was the hard disc as well, tried a spare one I had, did the same.

In the end I did a fresh install from the hidden partition and this made a dramatic difference! XP started within a few mins and the whole the machine was a joy to use

You may need to bite the bullet and try a fresh install one way or another.

 

[ThomBassmonkey]

Have you tried booting into safe mode? Tat should tell you if it's unwanted software or a windows/hardware problem.

 

[CaptainCrash]

Create a partition?

I wouldn't recommend messing around with the partition table if the drive contains the only copies of irreplaceable data... resizing live partitions *usually* works out OK, but if it doesn't there will be tears before bedtime.

Really don't want to reinstall, parents have thousands of files spread out everywhere and no second hard drive.

This doesn't sound good anyway - would now be a good time to mention to your parents the need for backups?

As far as rescuing the existing installation goes, I'm not sure what to suggest in addition to what you've already done... it does sound like the system is pretty messed up, and you could be endlessly chasing wild geese to no great effect.

What you could do is use Macrium Reflect to create an image of the existing setup, save the image on a second drive, do a format/reinstall, install Macrium again, then copy (not restore) the image file back to somewhere on the original drive. Macrium will let you mount the image as a virtual drive, so that all your parents' stuff will still be accessible as long as they can find it in the folder structure, and they can copy it to a more convenient location in the new installation (My Documents, My Pictures or whatever) at their leisure.

Obviously the practicality of this would depend on the total size of the existing installation, and the size of the HDD - Macrium will compress the image, but you might want to uninstall all the applications first (you won't be needing them, as the image will just be a data store), clean out any temp files, empty the recycle bin and delete any system restore points before actually creating the image.

It's not very space-efficient admittedly, but at least you don't run the risk of accidentally blowing away irreplaceable family photos stored in some barmy location (and not backed up, needless to say).

It might also be an idea to partition the drive as C (OS/apps) and D (Data) when you come to reinstall, and relocate the "special" folders (My Documents etc) onto the D partition, so that user data gets saved to D by default, and things will be easier when you inevitably have to go through the whole process again. Again, Macrium is your friend here, as you could then create an image of the clean C installation, store it on D, and simply restore it in a few minutes when things go horribly wrong, rather than spending hours reinstalling from scratch.

 

[Snakedoctor]

I would update the drivers and run msconfig and remove any un-needed stuff from startup. Vista is notorious for slow boot and shutdown times. Maybe bite the bullet and do a fresh clean install.

 

[Glaucus]

Still running a few scans, will have to see what spare hard drives I've got at home, but won't be back to parents for a while, wish I got them a copy of w7.

They have essentials backed up to cd, but they literally have thousands of files. They do a lot of voluntary work for varouse organisations, so have loads of files about this and that, most of which aren't essential stuff.

I had similar issues on a Dell machine running XP, would take a age do anything! I thought it was the hard disc as well, tried a spare one I had, did the same.

It's a dell as well