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Windows 7 locking up, cannot run disk defrag, no system restore points
Long post alert. This started with one issue and has snowballed into several. The performance of my system (Dell Latitude E6410, Windows 7 Professional) has gotten bad in the last few weeks. I'll be using a browser and maybe one other application, or have a folder open, and everything locks up. I can't move the mouse or open Task Manager and Ctrl+Alt+Delete does nothing. I have waited up to 5-10 minutes and eventually just do a hard reset.
After doing a second hard reset today, I received this message:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
I let it run the check and it restarted normally, so I don't think it found any issues. It did recover a few orphaned files. After that finished, I had the same issue again, so I did another hard reset and started googling. One of the troubleshooting suggestions was to start with the disk defragmenter. When I try to open that, it says "Disk Defragmenter was scheduled using another program. Disk Defragmenter is currently using customized settings created by another program. Before you can modify the schedule, you must remove the customized settings." When I click Remove settings, that box closes, but nothing else happens. I try to run it again, same message.
So I google that problem. Another troubleshooting guide starts with run antivirus/anti-spyware program. I run my Microsoft Security Essentials full scan, and it comes back with no issues.
Next step is check that disk free space is more than 10% - I have about 45% free.
Next: check disk for errors, properties - tools - check now. I rebooted and it ran the check, again no errors.
Next: open system restore and restore to a point from before the issue started happening. I open SR and I only have one restore point from 3 days ago! I know I have created more than that. I try it, but it fails due to an Adobe Reader issue.
The next step says to find the dfrg.inf file and try reinstalling. I go to look for it, and it's not there. So I try another angle, looking at the task scheduler to see if maybe defrag is scheduled there. When I open it, I get 76 pop-ups in a row, each showing the name of a task and saying the task image is corrupt or has been tampered with.
Amazingly, my system hasn't locked up once since I started typing this, but now I feel the need to address all of these other issues!
1. Disk defrag not running and can't find file to reinstall
2. Restore points not being created and/or saved
3. All of my tasks (or task image?) being corrupt
Where to start?