Over working drive

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shenan stanley
Posts: 38
Joined: 15 Mar 2009, 00:00

Re: Over working drive

Post by shenan stanley »

John wrote:
> Before I turned off auto-update XP installed a whole list of
> updates that have, it appears, slowed my machine to a crawl.
>
> Boot takes a long time once the wallpaper appears.
> Most programs take up to several minutes to load the first time or
> when the system has been idle for a time, approximately 20 minutes.
> Some programs, Spider Solitare for example, load normally when the
> system first boots but then reverts to the same behavior as my
> other programs.
>
> To date I have run chkdsk /f which repaired one dll
> I have defrag'd all three physical drives
> I have tried to restore to a point before the updates but I am not
> sure what date to use. I went on a long road trip right after the
> June update that I suspect is the culprit and did not notice the
> problem until after two more automatic updates.
>
> Any suggestions other than my feeling that I have a reinstall in my
> future?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Specific Operating System?
Service pack?

Start button --> RUN (no "RUN"? Press the "Windows Key" + R on your
keyboard) --> type in:
winver
--> Click OK.

The picture at the top of the window that opens will give you the general
(Operating System name) while the line starting with the word "version" will
give you the rest of the story. Post both in response to this message
verbatim. ;-)

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwa ... fault.mspx

Reboot.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Download/Install the latest Windows Installer (for your OS):
( Windows XP 32-bit : WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe )
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/deta ... laylang=en

Reboot.

Log on as an user with administrative rights and open Internet Explorer and
visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a CUSTOM scan...
(Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.)

Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time. Continue until you have all you need/want, rebooting as needed.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one and any of the "Office Live" ones for
now. I would completely avoid the Optional Hardware updates. Also, I
see no need to get Internet Explorer 8 in your situation. I'd even go as
far as to say that if you have installed it, uninstall it and use Internet
Explorer 7.


Not a bad start... Now let's do some space cleanup:

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.


Follow that up with some basic stuff:

How to scan your disks for errors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

How to Defragment your hard drives
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848

Also make sure you keep good and consistent backups.

Come back - let everyone know how the cleanup goes.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

gerry
Posts: 71
Joined: 04 Mar 2009, 00:00

Re: Over working drive

Post by gerry »

John

Using System Restore not knowing whether there is a better approach
would be a short sighted approach.

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

What is the CPU and how much RAM does the computer have? Right click on
the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties to get this
information.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


John wrote:
> Before I turned off auto-update XP installed a whole list of updates
> that have, it appears, slowed my machine to a crawl.
>
> Boot takes a long time once the wallpaper appears.
> Most programs take up to several minutes to load the first time or
> when the system has been idle for a time, approximately 20 minutes.
> Some programs, Spider Solitare for example, load normally when the
> system first boots but then reverts to the same behavior as my other
> programs.
>
> To date I have run chkdsk /f which repaired one dll
> I have defrag'd all three physical drives
> I have tried to restore to a point before the updates but I am not
> sure what date to use. I went on a long road trip right after the
> June update that I suspect is the culprit and did not notice the
> problem until after two more automatic updates.
>
> Any suggestions other than my feeling that I have a reinstall in my
> future?
>
> Thanks in advance.

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