Windows 7 Constant Hard Drive Activity - Computer Slow to Respond

Update.

With help from Soluto support, I finally got Soluto installed and restarted the computer.

After the first restart, I looked at the Soluto information and subsequently deleted several startup items (2.56 seconds removed from boot time).

I also temporarily removed Nova backup from the list of applications that run at startup. This removed 0.1 minutes from total boot time. This startup item will be restored for next restart

I then restarted the system and again looked at the Soluto information. Soluto reported a total boot time of 2.15 minutes. However, the continuous hard drive activity and slow response issue continues for several minutes after the desktop is displayed (e.g., boot sequence completed).

The boot time graphical analysis Soluto presents is shown in the attached file. Detail for the individual segments shown can only be seen if you individually click on a displayed segment.

I attempted to temporarily prevent Kaspersky AV from running at startup by deleting/modifying the registry key that causes it to run. I was unable to do so because Windows will not allow that key to be deleted or modified!

I have posted about this same issue on the Kasperky forum but have not yet received a response.

I'm not sure where to go from here --- any further suggestions would be welcomed!

C.

You can't temporarily prevent Kaspersky from running.
You have to completely uninstall. Kaspersky labs may have an uninstaller to help with this.

If you then see your problem solved, you have choices to make.

pscowboy said:

You can't temporarily prevent Kaspersky from running.
You have to completely uninstall. Kaspersky labs may have an uninstaller to help with this.

If you then see your problem solved, you have choices to make.

Just a FYI - there IS a way to prevent Kaspersky Internet Security from running at startup. Thx to help from the Kaspersky forum I was able to do that! A check of Windows Task Manager confirms that the Kaspersky AV application (AVP.exe) is no longer one of the running processes.

Without Kaspersky Internet Security running at startup, the problem still exists!

Soluto shows that without Kaspersky running an additional 30 seconds is shaved off of boot time, but the problem with constant hard drive activity and slow system response STILL EXISTS!

Any clue where to go from here?

C.

I find that on occasion my windows has a lot of disc activity at start up. I let it do its disc thing and usually within 20 - 30 minutes this stops and all is well. I just let windows do its own house keeping.

jgiels said:

I find that on occasion my windows has a lot of disc activity at start up. I let it do its disc thing and usually within 20 - 30 minutes this stops and all is well. I just let windows do its own house keeping.

If my problem was just unknown hard drive activity, I would not be overly concerned. However as mentioned originally, during this period of constant hard drive activity, the system is agonizingly slow to respond when trying to run applications --- this includes basic Windows applications such as Windows Explorer.

Having to wait until it has finished the unknown activity to use the system is IMHO not a good alternative!

C.

Faladu said:

I'd be pretty concerned about constant HD activity, I'd be backing up critical data ASAP, I suspect HD is having trouble reading some windows files, and you might need a wipe and drop or new HD soon.

Registry and HD been scanned for errors?

Visit the tutorials forum for instructions on what to do.

CHKDSK has been run - no problems found.

Registry scan done with CCleaner - no problems found.

C.

Golden said:

Mmm. I wonder if there are bad sectors being reallocated at boot up?

Have you tried to run this to see the health status of your disk?

CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

Will that do something that CHKDSK won't do?

During this investigative process, I've already downloaded/installed several applications recommended by those trying to help. Not really anxious to do more inless some clear benefit will result!

C.