Windows 7: Disk Defragment taking forever!

I got this HP G60-508US notebook for my son for Christmas, and now we're having problems with how slow it's running. I'm pretty well versed in keeping our home computer in top shape, but this laptop is driving me nuts! It's not like we've loaded up the C drive with crap either. I decided to go ahead and load some of his favorite websites on it, and he'd only used it a day before having slowdown problems. The screensaver would freeze up, taking a long time for the main screen to come back on, and he said the internet was running slow. So I did a disc cleanup like I always do with ours, then I went into Disc Defragment to see how things looked. Man, how slow is this thing suppose to run? I've never seen a Windows XP program run as slow as this Windows 7 disc defragment has! Then during the "Pass 4" phase of the defrag, the computer froze. So I exited out of that, and tried running our McAfee anti virus program on it. A quick scan showed no problems, but when I ran a full length scan, it froze at 42%. This is crazy! I found the "HP Support Assistant" and am using that right now, doing the "tune up". It's been running since 10am this morning, it's not 2:07pm, and has been on the Disc Defragment part for almost 3 hours now. How long should this take? I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just do a complete system restore and take this back to factory specs and start all over again. But if there's something wrong with that computer, I need to know so I can take it back. How much longer should I wait on the defrag before knowing this isn't going to work?

I am sorry that a wonderful day like Christmas was spoiled for your family. We could give you all kinds of advice on what to do, which may or may not work. My advice is bring it back, if you are not satisfied. The stores are very easy going about exchanges this time of year. But, make sure that the computer you have has a good fit with Windows 7, not just minimum specs, but a little extra to make it work properly. If the computer that you currently own is taking too long to defrag bring it back. If it is behaving proprerly, but you are not satisfied, again bring it back.

Even though you may not feel it, now because of the comuter. I truly wish you and your family a Merry belated Christmas and all the best for the New Year

I do believe that the time of defrag has to deal with the processor and the size of the HD. What size is the HD? Also, the Celeron Processors aren't exactly known for their performance.

Windows7 native defragger is pants in my opinion.

Suggest you download an alternative freebie called Defraggler

(If you decide to stick with it remember to delete native defrag passes which are scheduled in your scheduled tasks area...)

Sometimes defrag' fails if there are corrupt sectors on the hard drive. This can happen if a hard restart has occured, or a laptop has been knocked, but can also happen when a program error occurs - and it does not mean your drive is rodgered!

Before all else, however, I suggest you open a command prompt (type CMD in the start menu, search box...) and at the C: prompt, you should type...

chkdsk /f (note the space between the k and the /)

This command will cause you to have to agree to run the process on reboot. Just hit Y and Enter when prompted to. Let the machine reboot, it will check your drive when doing this. After you're back to your desktop the Windows 7 native defrag' should run.

Good luck

PS; If your BIOS offers you a SMART disk management option - turn it on, this will help to prevent physical errors on the hard disk in the future.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I was online with an HP support person (could barely understand her) and of course, after doing all kinds of things like F10ing and checking the hard drive for errors, she's got me doing a system recovery. After it finishes, I have to call them back with my ticket # and see what else they want me to do. If we have these same problems after the recovery, I am taking this laptop back to the store and talking to the manager. I've never been so disappointed in an HP product in my life. This is the first laptop we've ever had, and it makes me glad I have a desktop.

The hard drive is a 250 GB drive, and the processor is a Intel Celeron 900.

Rich, you are a sweetheart, thank you for those words. Our son has a learning problem, and we've tried to do everything possible to make this Christmas special for him. This recent diagnosis had him depressed, and he had no idea he was getting this as his major gift this year. One way or another, I expect HP to make this right.

We all should be grateful, for all that we take for granted. Take care my friend.

One more thing, when the tech person tried to go back in after the hard drive check, she tried to back in remotely to look at the computer again. When she tried, the system booted off, giving a blue screen saying the computer was going to shut down. This makes no sense to me, I think there is a major problem with this. In fact, I should call Office Depot right now just in case.

Return policies are easy this time of year, dont hesitate.

This is sounding like a defective hard drive do yourself a favor take the HP back and look for another brand HP laptops have had a lot more than their share of issues and have been rated lowest on reliability study.

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/S...ility_1109.pdf

It's disheartening to know that I may have to stop using HP products. I always used HP, none of my desktops ever really gave me trouble that I couldn't work on myself. I've installed hard drives, RAM, and DVD drives. I hate to think that I"m going to have to box this back up and try to find something comparable.

This was 549.99 at regular price, 349.99 on sale. Are there any good alternatives out there in that price range with comparable hard drive size and RAM? I won't touch a Dell, and am nervous about other brands. Any advice is appreciated.