How To Make Vista more responsive and faster

How To Make Vista more Responsive and Faster​

   Information

Many people are having a problem in regards to either a slow boot up, or that windows is slow to load Programs.
I am using a SATA RAID 0 config, and even with 4GB of ram This can result in heavy fragmentation over two drives, and a slow system- especially after recording tv on MCE or any other activity that writes large files to disk.

Deframenting speeds up the system dramatically, BUT using the default defragmenter doesn't defrag file fragments bigger than 64MB or even include them in the fragmentation statistics
When you have file fragments for one program scattered all over your hard drive, it takes time to recompile them in order to execute the program/data in question. Consolidating all file fragments regardless of their size will result in faster access and execution. Now multiply this by hundreds of thousands of individual file fragments that the cpu must recompile to execute in proper sequence per Windows or User command at the same time. I have seen the GUI show 0% fragmentation where the -w command will show 10% fragmentation on a 640GB SATA RAID 0 drive- thats alot of little individual file fragments scattered over a modest size drive...

But this is only part of the problem, now add into the equation file system errors, bad sectors on the disk, and attribute record (NTFS Directory) corruption...and even the fastest system will slow to a crawl over time.

two steps to a faster system:
(Diskcheck can be scheduled at same time as defrag is running, and will commence upon reboot of system)

1. Do a full defrag- Consolidate all file fragments regardless of size (-w)​

Start>All Programs>Acessories>Right Click Command Prompt>"Run as Administrator">at command prompt, copy and paste the following>hit "Enter": (or just type cmd in search at start, right click program "run as administrator")​

(Do not close command (cmd) screen-flashing cursor in empty space indicates defrag running. see note below or page 2 of this tutorial (second post from bottom to see screen shots of the 3 defrag stages))​

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defrag c: -w ​

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2. Check disk for errors​

Start>Computer>Right Click "C" drive>Click Properties>Tools>Error Checking-Click "Check Now">Under Check Disk Options click "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"> Restart Computer​

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(note-substitute "c" for the drive letter you want to defrag/check for errors)​

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   Note

When the computer restarts after check disk, you will notice that the system is much faster and more responsive.

   Note

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Do not close the "Administrator:Command Prompt" window untill defrag is complete, or it will abort (wait until you see flashing cursor at C:\Windows\system32>_)​

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Defrag does not delete files- it just rearranges them on the drive and consolidates. If you notice increase/decrease of storage space on the drive, It can probably most likely be attributed to the Check Disk scan verifying/correcting errors in file data and free space, and/or bad sectors recovered, or marked as "unrecoverable" on the disk. See scan results for more info upon completion of Disk Check.​

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If your Disk is marked as "Dirty" see Method 3 here: Check Disk - chkdsk​

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Related Tutorials

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• How to Speed Up the Performance of Vista
• To Reset and Check All Drives and Run CHKDSK If a Drive is Dirty
• scan for and fix system integrity violations

 

[wincheese]

hey, i didnt read all the comments so i dont know wether someone already asked the same :P sorry
when i type that in defrag c: -w the command windows shows up for a sec, then it disapears and nothing happens, any ideas?

 

[rive0108]

hey, i didnt read all the comments so i dont know wether someone already asked the same :P sorry
when i type that in defrag c: -w the command windows shows up for a sec, then it disapears and nothing happens, any ideas?

The command windows shows up for a second then closes?

Are you not performing the command in the "Administrator:command Prompt"? If you are not performing in it the admin cmd prompt it will not work.

The only way I can type the command, and see the cmd window flash and close is if I enter the command in the "Start Search" box. If this is what you are doing, reread the instructions for opening a Admin Command Prompt Window.

 

[Sound_Asleep]

well I gained 1.67 GB but any space regained is better than nothing :P

 

[icynyx]

Just a quick question, I'm sorry if its off topic.

I've been using CCleaner for 4 months now on my vista 64 bit. How would you know if one of the important registry was deleted or not? Will your computer just stop working? Or will the problem arise after a couple of months?

Thanks.

 

[rive0108]

Just a quick question, I'm sorry if its off topic.

I've been using CCleaner for 4 months now on my vista 64 bit. How would you know if one of the important registry was deleted or not? Will your computer just stop working? Or will the problem arise after a couple of months?

Thanks.

If you corrupted the reg it will result in program/windows errors and or crashes.
If you run this scan, and sfc /scannow and you dont get corruption/integrity errors you are prob fine.

 

[icynyx]

If you corrupted the reg it will result in program/windows errors and or crashes.
If you run this scan, and sfc /scannow and you dont get corruption/integrity errors you are prob fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. I want to make sure i understood. As long as
1.) the defrag c: -w works AND
2.) scannow doesn't show any errors
then everything should be working okay.

Lastly, is it normal for defrag c: -w to last for 8 hours? I started it at 12:45 and its 8:40 right now and its still not done...

 

[rive0108]

If you corrupted the reg it will result in program/windows errors and or crashes.
If you run this scan, and sfc /scannow and you dont get corruption/integrity errors you are prob fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. I want to make sure i understood. As long as
1.) the defrag c: -w works AND
2.) scannow doesn't show any errors
then everything should be working okay.

Lastly, is it normal for defrag c: -w to last for 8 hours? I started it at 12:45 and its 8:40 right now and its still not done...

8 hours is a long time you must have alot of frag.
Also depends on size of hdd and your system (speed).
What was the % of frag?
The scans really only check Windows- not installed programs. If they are corrupted at the reg level they will crash/show errors.


If you want a good self diagnostic (i.e., green is good, red is bad) try this:

http://www.eset.com/download/sysinspector.php

 

[icynyx]

If you corrupted the reg it will result in program/windows errors and or crashes.
If you run this scan, and sfc /scannow and you dont get corruption/integrity errors you are prob fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. I want to make sure i understood. As long as
1.) the defrag c: -w works AND
2.) scannow doesn't show any errors
then everything should be working okay.

Lastly, is it normal for defrag c: -w to last for 8 hours? I started it at 12:45 and its 8:40 right now and its still not done...

8 hours is a long time you must have alot of frag.
Also depends on size of hdd and your system (speed).
What was the % of frag?
The scans really only check Windows- not installed programs. If they are corrupted at the reg level they will crash/show errors.


If you want a good self diagnostic (i.e., green is good, red is bad) try this:

ESET SysInspector

I was expecting 2 hours tops since I defrag my laptop every month.
I know my speed is 2.10 ghz.
The defrag prompt says there's 1% file fragmentation

 

[rive0108]

Thanks for the quick reply. I want to make sure i understood. As long as
1.) the defrag c: -w works AND
2.) scannow doesn't show any errors
then everything should be working okay.

Lastly, is it normal for defrag c: -w to last for 8 hours? I started it at 12:45 and its 8:40 right now and its still not done...

8 hours is a long time you must have alot of frag.
Also depends on size of hdd and your system (speed).
What was the % of frag?
The scans really only check Windows- not installed programs. If they are corrupted at the reg level they will crash/show errors.


If you want a good self diagnostic (i.e., green is good, red is bad) try this:

ESET SysInspector

I was expecting 2 hours tops since I defrag my laptop every month.
I know my speed is 2.10 ghz.
The defrag prompt says there's 1% file fragmentation

1% shouldnt have taken more than an hour.
look at page two (second to last post to see 3 stages)
note- 3rd screen denotes finished defrag

 

[Jjohnson]

Great tip!!

 

[icynyx]

8 hours is a long time you must have alot of frag.
Also depends on size of hdd and your system (speed).
What was the % of frag?
The scans really only check Windows- not installed programs. If they are corrupted at the reg level they will crash/show errors.


If you want a good self diagnostic (i.e., green is good, red is bad) try this:

ESET SysInspector

I was expecting 2 hours tops since I defrag my laptop every month.
I know my speed is 2.10 ghz.
The defrag prompt says there's 1% file fragmentation

1% shouldnt have taken more than an hour.
look at page two (second to last post to see 3 stages)
note- 3rd screen denotes finished defrag

I've seen the screenshots. Anyways, i woke up 6am today and its done... I don't even want to know how long it took, but definitely more than 10 hours...

I'm doing the chkdsk and it too is taking a long time. Started at 6am and its 11am. It seems to have stopped at stage 5 of 5 where it's verifying for free space. It's at 43% for almost an hour now, and the blinking icon that shows that the computer is reading something isn't blinking at all but the fan can be heard spinning... Is there a way to abort it so I can just redo the whole chkdsk?

 

[rive0108]

I was expecting 2 hours tops since I defrag my laptop every month.
I know my speed is 2.10 ghz.
The defrag prompt says there's 1% file fragmentation

1% shouldnt have taken more than an hour.
look at page two (second to last post to see 3 stages)
note- 3rd screen denotes finished defrag

I've seen the screenshots. Anyways, i woke up 6am today and its done... I don't even want to know how long it took, but definitely more than 10 hours...

I'm doing the chkdsk and it too is taking a long time. Started at 6am and its 11am. It seems to have stopped at stage 5 of 5 where it's verifying for free space. It's at 43% for almost an hour now, and the blinking icon that shows that the computer is reading something isn't blinking at all but the fan can be heard spinning... Is there a way to abort it so I can just redo the whole chkdsk?

nope.
You have to let it finish. its weird that it takes so long for you. With 640GB drive it takes about an hour-hour and a half to finish on my system. Do you have a slow processor (duron or celeron)? with little RAM?

 

[icynyx]

1% shouldnt have taken more than an hour.
look at page two (second to last post to see 3 stages)
note- 3rd screen denotes finished defrag

I've seen the screenshots. Anyways, i woke up 6am today and its done... I don't even want to know how long it took, but definitely more than 10 hours...

I'm doing the chkdsk and it too is taking a long time. Started at 6am and its 11am. It seems to have stopped at stage 5 of 5 where it's verifying for free space. It's at 43% for almost an hour now, and the blinking icon that shows that the computer is reading something isn't blinking at all but the fan can be heard spinning... Is there a way to abort it so I can just redo the whole chkdsk?

nope.
You have to let it finish. its weird that it takes so long for you. With 640GB drive it takes about an hour-hour and a half to finish on my system. Do you have a slow processor (duron or celeron)? with little RAM?

I'm as confused as you are. My laptop is only 4 months old. It has 4GB of memory and 250GB ram with intel core 2 duo processors @ 2.10GHz. And on top of that, I don't download much, I can list stuff I've downloaded into my laptop since getting it, namely Avast, CCleaner, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN. Not much. I don't even download games into it.

The chkdsk I have a feeling has totally stopped at 43%... its close to 2 hours now. The whole process is making me extremely scared because if something's wrong, I'm not tech savy enough to know how to repair it. And I'm not sure if my warranty covers such problems.

 

[rive0108]

I've seen the screenshots. Anyways, i woke up 6am today and its done... I don't even want to know how long it took, but definitely more than 10 hours...

I'm doing the chkdsk and it too is taking a long time. Started at 6am and its 11am. It seems to have stopped at stage 5 of 5 where it's verifying for free space. It's at 43% for almost an hour now, and the blinking icon that shows that the computer is reading something isn't blinking at all but the fan can be heard spinning... Is there a way to abort it so I can just redo the whole chkdsk?

nope.
You have to let it finish. its weird that it takes so long for you. With 640GB drive it takes about an hour-hour and a half to finish on my system. Do you have a slow processor (duron or celeron)? with little RAM?

I'm as confused as you are. My laptop is only 4 months old. It has 4GB of memory and 250GB ram with intel core 2 duo processors @ 2.10GHz. And on top of that, I don't download much, I can list stuff I've downloaded into my laptop since getting it, namely Avast, CCleaner, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN. Not much. I don't even download games into it.

The chkdsk I have a feeling has totally stopped at 43%... its close to 2 hours now. The whole process is making me extremely scared because if something's wrong, I'm not tech savy enough to know how to repair it. And I'm not sure if my warranty covers such problems.

Using a reg cleaner is never a good idea-unless you know exactly what you are doing. Your issues may be a result of Windows corruption. have you tried sfc /scannow?

 

[icynyx]

nope.
You have to let it finish. its weird that it takes so long for you. With 640GB drive it takes about an hour-hour and a half to finish on my system. Do you have a slow processor (duron or celeron)? with little RAM?

I'm as confused as you are. My laptop is only 4 months old. It has 4GB of memory and 250GB ram with intel core 2 duo processors @ 2.10GHz. And on top of that, I don't download much, I can list stuff I've downloaded into my laptop since getting it, namely Avast, CCleaner, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN. Not much. I don't even download games into it.

The chkdsk I have a feeling has totally stopped at 43%... its close to 2 hours now. The whole process is making me extremely scared because if something's wrong, I'm not tech savy enough to know how to repair it. And I'm not sure if my warranty covers such problems.

Using a reg cleaner is never a good idea-unless you know exactly what you are doing. Your issues may be a result of Windows corruption. have you tried sfc /scannow?

I haven't tried sfc yet since I can't get out of dskchk. I searched dskchk in the forum and as it turns out a lot of people had a similar problem with their dskchk freezing...

 

[icynyx]

Using a reg cleaner is never a good idea-unless you know exactly what you are doing. Your issues may be a result of Windows corruption. have you tried sfc /scannow?

I decided to just abort the disk check and ran sfc after I logged on. It found 2 corrupted files, one for windows sidebar and one for Microsoft Printing... Now I have to find a way to repair it...

Thanks for all the help.

 

[pacinitaly]

I used to always use regcleaner then my files got ^$#@%*( up so I stoped

 

[JD Commando]

Thanks for this tip. I'm running it now...

 

[dylana]

:huh: oh my, I followed every details in page 2, just curious why is the "percent file defragmentation" is still 0% but I can see the cursor blinking which means that defrag is working. Just wanna know it its really normal for this percent file defrag to stay at 0%?

 

[dylana]

someone please tell me im doing the right thing. I started the dfrag around10am and now its almost 2pm and its still not done am I doing the right thing here oh please somebody help.


ok im happy now lol! its done after 5 hrs, my ckhdisk didnt take much time just an hour so all in all my defrag plus chkdisk 6 hrs :D. when I check my drive c; i have 74.4gb free now, before it was 52.2gb yeheyyy!!

thanks again for posting this thread