Fresh Install Of Windows Running Slowly!

shadow2201 · 07 Jul 2014

Hello all, need a little help here if you can!

Fixing a laptop for a friend. Turns out the hard drive was bad. Got all the information she wanted off the laptop and installed a brand new WD Blue 500GB HDD in the laptop. Install Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS, and everything runs great. Installed AV, drivers(after all drivers were installed it was still running great), windows updates, the works. Everything was running fantastically. Started moving files that were on her old HDD to the new HDD, and in the middle of the transfer I noticed that everything seemed a bit laggy. Figured maybe it was because I was using the hdd to transfer so I just let it go. Once the transfer was done, I ran defrag and restarted.

The computer is still running very slowly, lagging when I click the start menu, when I go to control panel menu, when I open a web page, or even open a folder. As I said before, brand new HDD, computer was running fine and fast as can be when I first started messing with it. I ran AV scans to see if one of the files brought over from the old computer contained a virus, nothing there, ran spybot and malwarebytes to see if any malware got on the computer somehow, ran defrag again, cleaned up the registry with CCleaner(which I've used on many computers with no issues).

I'm stumped, don't really want to start fresh again, but I can't really send it back to her in this state. Any thoughts on something I can try? I've read a lot of people say it could be bad drivers, but all drivers were installed before the problem started happening. It only started after I transferred all the files over. Could a virus be in one of the files and I'm just not picking it up?

Luckily I have all the files still on an external, so if I have to reformat again, it's no harm, no foul, but really don't want to have to delay the process anymore.

Thanks for any help you can give me!!

ICIT2LOL · 07 Jul 2014

Hello and welcome Shadow mate try some of these tips form this tutorial
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

If I had known you were going to do this I would have recommended this
http://www.seagate.com/au/en/internal-hard-drives/solid-state-hybrid/laptop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/?sku=ST500LM000 bit more expensive (not much) but well worth it.

gregrocker · 07 Jul 2014

Why are you forcing drivers into a driver-complete OS? Did you think this was XP? Drivers are delivered via the installer and then running all Important and Optional Windows Updates after enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3).

You only need your network driver in the backup in case it isn't provided and starts up without network connectivity. Install the driver and do the Updates. These will include important patches that make the drivers work.

Only import drivers still missing in Device Manager after all rounds of Windows Updates are done.

If you'd like to do a perfect install, start over and delete all partitions then do a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. You will get and keep a perfect install to the exact extent you stick with the tools, methods and optimizations in that tutorial, and keep it that way or as long as you do.

Bumpkin · 07 Jul 2014

You didn't mention which AV program you are using. I have seen some AV's put a big speed hit on a PC, Norton being the last one I encountered. Uninstall the AV and try a program that is light on system resources. I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

Has Windows Update completed all updates? If you suspect the slowdown started after the updates, you can do a System Restore to an earlier time.

carwiz · 07 Jul 2014

Not to mention all the indexing Window has to complete in the background. It will run slow for a while. After an install and update, it's best to let the machine sit idle for few hours while Windows cleans up after itself. The same will happen after adding a large number of files.

Layback Bear · 07 Jul 2014

Did you run Windows Experience Index when your install was completed. I would do this after the indexing and defrag is completed.
It (I think) gives Window 7 another look at your hardware.

To answer one of your questions.
YES
When you transfer things from you old system to the new system you can infect the new system if the old system was infected.