Solved Win7/Pro x64 - Booting Very Slow - Cannot Save Files

[YaMoonSun]

Thank you, YaMoonSun

I found 12 entries and I had 2 unchecked. I decided to uncheck the hueyPRO monitor entry for now.

On further reflection and research I unchecked these, too.

Adobe Photo Downloader 4.0
Acrotray Adove distiller helper application
Catalyst Control Center (from Advanced Micro Devices)
VMonitor

It is certainly not overloaded enough to require an over 5 minute boot time.

thanks
baumgrenze

Check the non-Microsoft services that are in the services tab too while you're in there. Also do a custom scan with malwarebytes so it can detect possible rootkits. Preferably from safemode with networking.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank You YaMoonSun!

I now believe that VMonitor have been part of my problem. With it shut off, the machine boots like it did before, but it is one of 4 items.

It had the worst reputation when I searched each startup item one at a time.

Very important is that I can again use ZTreeWin.

Now I have to do some careful work comparing My Documents on my D: data drive vs the copy the jumanji helped me to make on F:, my external backup drive. I will proceed with great caution, but it appears that the folder is far more complete. If I am convinced I want to replace what is on D: with the copy on F: I want to be certain that I use the most reliable method.

I will be back this afternoon with more information.

I hope to Mark Solved sooner rather than later. I wanted to report this level of success which encourages me greatly.

Thanks again to YaMoonSun!
baumgrenze

 

[baumgrenze]

Files Visible on D: (Data Disk) and F: (Copy)

jumanji

Here is where I am today. I thought I would share ZTreeWin displays of Drive D: vs Drive F:. I logged My Documents on each disk and then invoked ShowAll. I deleted the filenames for privacy's sake.

Clearly something bad happened to D: when it went to RAW and then became NTFS again so I can see it again.

On F:\Recovery - I have files saved right up until late on Monday, 2/27/17. The earliest file in this first display window is dated 2/21/17

On D: I inadvertently saved 2 files today. Otherwise there a few files dated 2/26/17 and they go back to 11/23/16 by the bottom of the window.

Clearly a lot of files were lost in the process.

I hope others can see the power of being able to do this ShowAll display.

Should I reformat D: at this point and then copy and paste the F:\Recovery file structure back to D:? I ask about reformatting because of the one surface flaw found in a surface scan in "square #9" from the left of the MiniTool Partition Wizard display (Post #10).

Have I failed to consider another step before the drastic step of reformatting.

I await further advice.

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[jumanji]

Can you post a fresh screenshot of Windows Disk Management? ( From what I understand you are able to access it - your drive D, WD 1TB disk - now in Windows)

 

[baumgrenze]

Thanks, jumanji,

Here's the image of Disk Management.

As I show above, the D: drive shows way fewer files than the F: drive. I've not put a lot of effort into exploring the D: drive to see if 'missing files' are there with a ~ or marked as temp files. I was just glad to see that the files I expected to find all appeared to be on the F: drive.

You were wise to counsel me to copy them to F: as a first task!

Now I believe I should move them back unless you think I should do more before I do this.

For good measure I've uploaded the surface test result again. Perhaps you know if the location of the bad sector in the display matrix correlates with where on the disk the bad sector is. Could it be in the boot sector area.

As I was shutting down applications, I noticed that drive F: is hatched with diagonal lines. Is this a bad sign? I see that it reports as NTFS and I can open files from Explorer.

Again, my bedtime approaches...

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[baumgrenze]

As I was shutting down applications I noticed that F: in Disk Management has diagonal hatching across it.

I can open files from Recovery at will using Explorer.

Am I missing something?

thanks
baumgrenze

 

[jumanji]

1, Do not worry about the hatched drive. When you open Windows Disk Management the first drive in the Disk list is always selected and will appear hatched in the Disk Map.. In your case it is the Image Backup eSATA (F: ) 2TB drive. You can see it highlighted. It is normal and is of no consequence. If you click on the empty space below the Disk List or Disk Map it will get deselected and the hatch will disappear.

2. Whenever there is a problem in the disk and the disk turns RAW, we really do not know what has happened to the Disk or what exactly is happening to the Disk. If the Disk has developed bad sectors and is dying, it can fail totally at anytime. So my first effort is always to recover whatever data can be recovered.

You must understand, if your disk has indeed developed bad sectors, the data in the bad sectors is already lost. You can recover only the data that is still good in the good sectors. Between the time you made a TestDisk recovery and now, if more bad sectors had developed, you would have lost more data.Further in my writeup Copying files listed by TestDisk during Recovery in screen 5, you will notice that TestDisk will show even deleted files in RED ( the files that you had deleted in the D drive that still have not been overwritten by new data). If you had not pressed h to hide those deleted files and you had selected all files to copy, even those deleted files will be recovered. If you see your D drive, you won't see those files since you had deleted those in it earlier.Only these two factors can explain why you are not seeing as many as the recovered files in your problem drive .

3. Once recovery is over, we can always try to restore the drive.Even if some mishap occurs during this process, we still have the recovered files.

4. Without our making any effort to recover the disk as a whole, if your Disk has recovered on its own and has become alright showing NTFS file system, then I would think your Disk has become temperamental. Only sector 0 which contains the MBR +partition Table and sector 2048 which contains the volume boot record can do that. Those are readable sometimes and becomes unreadable sometimes. Your disk may be just gasping for breath.

You have to check the disk with manufacturer's diagnostic/repair utility. In your case WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support

Install it and run the Quick and Extended Tests. Testing a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows Testing a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows | WD Support

If the tests fail, you have to discard the drive. Once bad sectors are detected it is only a question of time. It may be a slow death or a sudden death.Unpredictable and cannot be relied upon.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you for the hatching explanation.

I ran the Data Lifegard Diagnostics and it reported Pass on both the Quick Test and the Extended Test.

I went back and reran the Minitools surface scan again and this time it found 0 errors.

Are the attached images sufficient evidence?

thanks,
baumgrenze

 

[jumanji]

OK, fine. Your drive seems to be in good shape and whatever happened appears to be a temporary glitch, that cured itself. But keep a watch. Periodically run a Quick Test and check.

You can do a cleanwipe Using the ERASE option in the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows and then format the drive. You may then copy all data to it and continue to use it.

But make sure that you always have a backup of all your important data ( ask Lady Fitzgerald and she will tell you that you should have not one but minimum two backups. She may even fund you to buy as many HDDs as you may want - no questions asked ) and don't comeback here again requesting data recovery .

 

[Layback Bear]

If 6 days of recovery Hell doesn't want one to make backups; I don't know what will.

Great job as always jumanji!

Jack

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you one more time, jumanji, for patiently leading me past all the pitfalls. Jack, "great job" is an understatement.

For mysterious reasons, Win7 decided that it was important to run chkdsk on D:, F:, and C: during a boot today. At the end of each one, the scrolling display said:

"usn Journal verification completed. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems."

There is probably a log file somewhere with all the details that could be copied as a text file. I don't have the bandwidth to search for it right now.

Since I titled this "Booting Very Slow..." I want to reiterate what came to light startomg with post #39, and #41-42. I believe that my problem was associated with VMonitor.exe. Here is what file.net has to say:

"The process known as Monitor SnapShot Button belongs to software Digital microscope or Vimicro USB2.0 UVC PC Camera or Media-Tech Camera or Vimicro UVC USB2.0 PC Camera or Dolphin USB (version 2.0 Clip-on Webcam with Built-in) or Camera-H1C or Canyon USB2.0 PC Camera by Vimicro (www.vimicro.com)."

Perhaps it is OK to use on an 'as needed' basis, but I'd strongly recommend not having it in Startup.

Thanks once more,
baumgrenze

 

[jumanji]

My pleasure. Thank you.