Disk Defragment taking forever!

When 7 initially starts (first run) the system will perform numerous tasks, updating, indexing all this tends to drag down performance, this will be much more noticeable on lower performance systems.

With such a new machine you can always try the factory restore or just return it, personally I would not touch HP, as they are one of the more unreliable on the market, just look here and good luck with the support. Me I would just start over and let the system update, leave it on overnight at the end of the day the slowest part of the machine is the hard drive and if it is reading, writing continuously to update the system, index the system, update security definitions it`s going to slowdown significantly, that and the CPU is a single core, single thread. this machine is best not being asked to perform multiple tasks all at the same time so just go one by one.

Windows 7 defrag is more than adequate for the average user other programs are only going to conflict with what Microsoft intended, and at best only have marginal impact on performance if any at all on a standalone system, save your $$$ and save on installing programs you just dont need.

McAfee is a very resource hungry security solution for a Notebook, this will also load up the system, Esets NOD32 is a much lighter program, or simply use Microsoft Security Essentials, it`s free and has good ratings.

As has already been posted make sure the machine has some extra capacity in comparison to windows 7`s minimum requirement, I would look as Asus, Toshiba, also Samsung & LG as the smaller venders tend to try harder at quality to increase market share, I have both and am impressed so far by the reliability, build quality, lack of bloatware, inclusion of software that is actually useful, only needing to uninstall the usual MS Office try out and of course McAfee

I do hope that it works out or you can get a replacement in good time

Here is a decent laptop in that price range


Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS5732Z-4510 NoteBook Intel Pentium T4300(2.10GHz) 15.6" 2GB Memory DDR2 667 160GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M - Laptops / Notebooks

This is an even nicer unit for a little more money


Newegg.com - lenovo G550(2958-ACU) NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4300(2.10GHz) 15.6" 3GB Memory DDR3 1066 250GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW Intel GMA 4500M - Laptops / Notebooks

Well, after reading that McAfee was dragging down some Windows 7 computers, I decided not to install that program. The HP tech after the system restore was done installed an update to the BIOS system, and it seems to be helping. I installed a free version of AVG anti virus, and will let this run a couple of days to see how things work. I'll take the laptop once a day and make sure we do disc cleanups and stuff. As far as HP products go, the 3 desktops we've owned have never really given us trouble, and have been very dependable. If this laptop gives me any more headaches, I"ll take it back and replace it.

Duranie said:

Well, after reading that McAfee was dragging down some Windows 7 computers, I decided not to install that program. The HP tech after the system restore was done installed an update to the BIOS system, and it seems to be helping. I installed a free version of AVG anti virus, and will let this run a couple of days to see how things work. I'll take the laptop once a day and make sure we do disc cleanups and stuff. As far as HP products go, the 3 desktops we've owned have never really given us trouble, and have been very dependable. If this laptop gives me any more headaches, I"ll take it back and replace it.

I have a Acer 3810T Timeline and it is also a single core, single thread machine, running Vista SP2, and it has pretty much the same limitations;

I wouldn't go overboard with the disk clean up once a week, even a month is more than enough. Windows 7 will automatically defrag the system periodically, however it is scheduled for 2 in the morning (Wednesday), you can either just leave the system on or change the scheduled time & day by typing defrag in the start menu search box and following the links.

Installing Google "Chrome" will speed up browsing the internet tremendously, as it`s far faster and less resource hungry than MS Internet Explorer.

AVG is a good enough option, although Microsoft Security Essentials would still be my AV of choice out of the free ones on offer.

Open Office is a good free alternative to Microsoft's Office and is more than capable for home use.

The majority of HP machines work as intended, so if you are happy with it, dont worry.

richc46 said:

Duranie said:

Well, after reading that McAfee was dragging down some Windows 7 computers, I decided not to install that program. The HP tech after the system restore was done installed an update to the BIOS system, and it seems to be helping. I installed a free version of AVG anti virus, and will let this run a couple of days to see how things work. I'll take the laptop once a day and make sure we do disc cleanups and stuff. As far as HP products go, the 3 desktops we've owned have never really given us trouble, and have been very dependable. If this laptop gives me any more headaches, I"ll take it back and replace it.

Morning,
May I suggest, look into MSE Miscrosoft Security Essentials, one of the best antivirus, free from Microsoft, if you have windows, one of the best.

Thanks for the info Rich. The thing I like about McAfee (we get it free with Comcast internet) is that is does something called "McAfee Quick Clean", cleaning temp files, internet cache, lost file fragments, orphaned registry keys, deleted emails, active X files, and other crap that bogs down the computer. I never saw AVG do that. Do programs like MSE do the same?

Tell me the System Information.

Be very careful with McAfee Quick Clean or any similar program.

Deleting temp files and lost file fragments is probably harmless.

Deleting anything related to the registry is begging for trouble unless you are an expert user. It might seemingly be a good idea and cause no problems for months, and then suddenly do something disastrous. Leave the registry alone--extraneous entries in the registry are just ignored and would have no noticeable affect on system speed.

This is a new machine. The chances of the hard drive being so seriously fragmented as to cause problems is very very small.

Your chances of getting lucid and accurate help from HP support is likely not too good either.

You have a very modestly powered machine that likely came with a lot of unnecessary software on it and much of it may be running automatically at startup. You can defeat a lot of that.

Run msconfig and tell us what is checkmarked on the startup tab. You can probably uncheck everything except antivirus as an experiment.