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Help with buying new hard drive



 
 
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  #16  
Old March 10th 15, 09:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:48:00 -0400
Paul wrote:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media

I'm wondering if I use this installation media from Microsoft, if it
will just install Windows 8.1 with out the Dell and Intel programs?

Will it leave the restore partition alone?

I'm downloading the 4 GB ISO right now, and have about an hour to
go.

If I don't see an improvement after this, I will definitely buy an
SSD.


If that disc is real installation media, you should be able
to point it at the partition that is to receive the OS.

I have, on occasion, set up a partition structure, before
doing an OS installation. As a means to "coax" the installation
to be done a certain way. It's one possible way to get the boot
partition and the system, into the same primary partition.

But whether that works with just any media, who knows. The thing is,
Microsoft isn't exactly very consistent now. They tend to do whatever
they feel like. On the last Win10 Technical Preview "upgrade",
the installation created a 450MB recovery boot partition, and
they just chewed 450MB off one partition, changed the partition
table order (bumped my DATA partition from slot 3 to slot 4).
And all without consulting me. So when it comes to
any policy that comes with the disc you're downloading, it
might all depend on whether the disc is the "original" 8.1,
or something they cooked up just for the purpose.

The only positive thing I can say about the whole
process you're about to go through, is the OS will
activate automatically. It'll use the Win8 key value
stored in a BIOS table of your OEM computer. But
as for the rest of it, will it leave the disc alone
and so on... do a backup first! You can't really
trust anyone these days.


I was wondering about activation. I found out the reason the computer
didn't have a product key sticker on it is because the product key is
stored in the BIOS.

Another thing that worried me, was after the installation media had
been written to the USB flash drive, there was a message that said:
"Be sure to have your product key ready when you are ready to install
Windows 8.1".

I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think it's
Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to do with
the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.

I think the safest thing to do is restore the computer to factory
settings, remove the hard drive and store it. Then install a 250 GB
SSD, and install Windows 7 on it.

I will just have to wait and see what happens with Windows 10.


Ads
  #17  
Old March 10th 15, 10:07 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:10:54 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:

On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 11:02:18 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:56:14 +0000
Stormin' Norman wrote:

Are you making this change to increase the speed or because you
need more room?

If you have plenty of free space on the existing drive and are
primarily looking to increase speed, have you considered a solid
state drive? They are lighting fast and somewhat reasonable in
price. If you need more than 500GB, the SSDs get a little pricey.


It's strictly for speed. Windows 8.1 is very slow on that computer.

An SSD is something to think about.

Like I said I don't know anything about laptops. I just want to make
sure the drive I order will fit in her computer. Are they all
physically the same?


It is very slow in comparison to what. I have 8.1 on this laptop, a
1.4 gig / 4gig ram and it is slow in comparison to my 3.5 gig cpu\8
gig ram. Much faster than my 1.6gig netbooks.

What does your wife do with the laptop besides shopping ?


KenW


It's slow compared to the computer that I had Windows 7 on for a few
years. That computer had one CPU 2.7 GHz, 2 GB of Ram. I now have
Linux Mint on it, and it's super fast compared to this computer. The
computer is an HP Compaq that I bought new in 2009.

When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


  #18  
Old March 10th 15, 10:45 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:32:11 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:


When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


I assume you have run Ccleaner, defrag , antivirus, Malwarebytes and
Superantispyware on it ?

In other words all the usual trouble shooting ?


KenW


I just scanned it with McAfee and it didn't find a virus.

The computer is new, and hasn't been used very much.


  #19  
Old March 10th 15, 10:57 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ron
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 507
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On 3/10/2015 5:45 PM, Johnny wrote:
On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:32:11 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:


When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


I assume you have run Ccleaner, defrag , antivirus, Malwarebytes and
Superantispyware on it ?

In other words all the usual trouble shooting ?


KenW


I just scanned it with McAfee and it didn't find a virus.

The computer is new, and hasn't been used very much.



That doesn't mean you didn't pick up some malware somehow. I would still
install and run Malwarebytes free edition.
  #20  
Old March 10th 15, 10:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 21:32:52 +0000
Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:07:33 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:10:54 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:

On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 11:02:18 -0500, Johnny
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:56:14 +0000
Stormin' Norman wrote:

Are you making this change to increase the speed or because you
need more room?

If you have plenty of free space on the existing drive and are
primarily looking to increase speed, have you considered a solid
state drive? They are lighting fast and somewhat reasonable in
price. If you need more than 500GB, the SSDs get a little
pricey.

It's strictly for speed. Windows 8.1 is very slow on that
computer.

An SSD is something to think about.

Like I said I don't know anything about laptops. I just want to
make sure the drive I order will fit in her computer. Are they
all physically the same?

It is very slow in comparison to what. I have 8.1 on this laptop, a
1.4 gig / 4gig ram and it is slow in comparison to my 3.5 gig cpu\8
gig ram. Much faster than my 1.6gig netbooks.

What does your wife do with the laptop besides shopping ?


KenW


It's slow compared to the computer that I had Windows 7 on for a few
years. That computer had one CPU 2.7 GHz, 2 GB of Ram. I now have
Linux Mint on it, and it's super fast compared to this computer. The
computer is an HP Compaq that I bought new in 2009.

When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


Have you checked your administrative error logs to see if you are
generating a lot of DISK or other errors?


There were five errors in the last 7 days. Four about Microsoft Store
licenses failing to sync, and one about Dell, and exception errors.
  #21  
Old March 10th 15, 11:06 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ron
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 507
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On 3/10/2015 4:58 PM, Johnny wrote:
On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:48:00 -0400
Paul wrote:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media

I'm wondering if I use this installation media from Microsoft, if it
will just install Windows 8.1 with out the Dell and Intel programs?

Will it leave the restore partition alone?

I'm downloading the 4 GB ISO right now, and have about an hour to
go.

If I don't see an improvement after this, I will definitely buy an
SSD.


If that disc is real installation media, you should be able
to point it at the partition that is to receive the OS.

I have, on occasion, set up a partition structure, before
doing an OS installation. As a means to "coax" the installation
to be done a certain way. It's one possible way to get the boot
partition and the system, into the same primary partition.

But whether that works with just any media, who knows. The thing is,
Microsoft isn't exactly very consistent now. They tend to do whatever
they feel like. On the last Win10 Technical Preview "upgrade",
the installation created a 450MB recovery boot partition, and
they just chewed 450MB off one partition, changed the partition
table order (bumped my DATA partition from slot 3 to slot 4).
And all without consulting me. So when it comes to
any policy that comes with the disc you're downloading, it
might all depend on whether the disc is the "original" 8.1,
or something they cooked up just for the purpose.

The only positive thing I can say about the whole
process you're about to go through, is the OS will
activate automatically. It'll use the Win8 key value
stored in a BIOS table of your OEM computer. But
as for the rest of it, will it leave the disc alone
and so on... do a backup first! You can't really
trust anyone these days.


I was wondering about activation. I found out the reason the computer
didn't have a product key sticker on it is because the product key is
stored in the BIOS.

Another thing that worried me, was after the installation media had
been written to the USB flash drive, there was a message that said:
"Be sure to have your product key ready when you are ready to install
Windows 8.1".

I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think it's
Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to do with
the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.

I think the safest thing to do is restore the computer to factory
settings, remove the hard drive and store it. Then install a 250 GB
SSD, and install Windows 7 on it.

I will just have to wait and see what happens with Windows 10.



Disable all of those Dell and Intel start-up items and see what happens.

If you are not happy with the computer return it if you can for another
one. There might be something wrong with it. If you can't return it from
where you bought it from contact Dell.

Also, you better check and see if Dell has Windows 7 drivers for that
computer. My HP laptop is 2 years old and HP only has drivers for W8 and
W8.1.


  #22  
Old March 10th 15, 11:07 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ken Blake, MVP[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,699
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:58:32 -0500, Johnny wrote:


I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think it's
Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to do with
the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.




Definitely not! What is installed has *no* effect on a computer's
speed. What is *running* does.

Now, if the Dell and Intel programs are installed *and* running,
that's a different story. But it's easy to find out whether they are
causing it to be slow. Simply shut down the programs and see how fast
the computer then is (if necessary, you can "end task" for them in
Task Manager).
  #23  
Old March 10th 15, 11:12 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ken Blake, MVP[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,699
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:45:16 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:32:11 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:


When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


I assume you have run Ccleaner, defrag , antivirus, Malwarebytes and
Superantispyware on it ?

In other words all the usual trouble shooting ?


KenW


I just scanned it with McAfee and it didn't find a virus.

The computer is new, and hasn't been used very much.



New or not, something is almost certainly wrong with it if it's as
slow as you say. Opening Control Panel or File Explorer takes only a
second or two here.
  #24  
Old March 10th 15, 11:17 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:07:25 -0700
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:58:32 -0500, Johnny wrote:


I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think
it's Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to
do with the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.




Definitely not! What is installed has *no* effect on a computer's
speed. What is *running* does.

Now, if the Dell and Intel programs are installed *and* running,
that's a different story. But it's easy to find out whether they are
causing it to be slow. Simply shut down the programs and see how fast
the computer then is (if necessary, you can "end task" for them in
Task Manager).


They are running, but I was afraid to shut them down, after reading it
caused a blue screen for some people that did shut them down.
  #25  
Old March 10th 15, 11:22 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:00:25 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:45:16 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:32:11 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:


When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.


I assume you have run Ccleaner, defrag , antivirus, Malwarebytes
and Superantispyware on it ?

In other words all the usual trouble shooting ?


KenW


I just scanned it with McAfee and it didn't find a virus.

The computer is new, and hasn't been used very much.

Still could be some crap on it. I have a Toshiba netbook that was so
slow until I removed some of the "utilities" they installed. Just had
to make sure I had their install files on a usb stick. There was one
that controlled the FN key which took plenty of research to find.


KenW


I remember reading something about that FN key when I was looking at
the startup programs. I'll have to go back and look again.
  #26  
Old March 11th 15, 12:12 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Gene E. Bloch[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,485
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:17:58 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:07:25 -0700
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:58:32 -0500, Johnny wrote:

I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think
it's Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to
do with the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.


Definitely not! What is installed has *no* effect on a computer's
speed. What is *running* does.

Now, if the Dell and Intel programs are installed *and* running,
that's a different story. But it's easy to find out whether they are
causing it to be slow. Simply shut down the programs and see how fast
the computer then is (if necessary, you can "end task" for them in
Task Manager).


They are running, but I was afraid to shut them down, after reading it
caused a blue screen for some people that did shut them down.


If that happens to you, just restart. They will restart as well. No big
deal, but don't have any programs with unsaved files running when you
try it!.

If it is successful, you can experiment to see if it helps. If so, then
consider disabling them from starting up.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
  #27  
Old March 11th 15, 12:28 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Help with buying new hard drive

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:12:36 -0700
"Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:17:58 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:07:25 -0700
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:58:32 -0500, Johnny
wrote:

I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think
it's Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to
do with the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.

Definitely not! What is installed has *no* effect on a computer's
speed. What is *running* does.

Now, if the Dell and Intel programs are installed *and* running,
that's a different story. But it's easy to find out whether they
are causing it to be slow. Simply shut down the programs and see
how fast the computer then is (if necessary, you can "end task"
for them in Task Manager).


They are running, but I was afraid to shut them down, after reading
it caused a blue screen for some people that did shut them down.


If that happens to you, just restart. They will restart as well. No
big deal, but don't have any programs with unsaved files running when
you try it!.

If it is successful, you can experiment to see if it helps. If so,
then consider disabling them from starting up.


I will try that the first thing in the morning, and let you know how it
works.
  #28  
Old March 11th 15, 12:39 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Help with buying new hard drive

Johnny wrote:
On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:32:11 -0600
Ken1943 wrote:

When I say slow, I mean when I click on Control Panel, it takes 10
seconds for it to open. I just have to watch this little spinning
wheel until it opens. Same with File Explorer or anything else.

I assume you have run Ccleaner, defrag , antivirus, Malwarebytes and
Superantispyware on it ?

In other words all the usual trouble shooting ?


KenW


I just scanned it with McAfee and it didn't find a virus.

The computer is new, and hasn't been used very much.



Use Disk Cleanup.

Examine all the options. One option controls the
removal of Windows.old, after a major update.

Once you remove around 13GB of unneeded stuff,
Windows Defender will have less stuff to scan,
and the machine will settle down sooner.

I run Windows 8 on a hex core CPU, and the "wheel of death"
doesn't go away any faster on that, than on a less
capable computer. So you can't always blame the CPU.
I can watch that wheel spin, while watching Task Manager
and see virtually no CPU activity. I'm not even convinced
that upgrading my hard drive to an SSD in that machine,
is going to help.

You can try:

1) Be prepared for a long session.
2) Open Task Manager and watch as one maintenance
action after another runs.
3) Disable Windows Defender.
4) Disable Indexing Options and the search indexer.
5) Look into how to disable Windows Update, things
like tiworker.exe or wuauserv.
6) And so on, until the machine regains some
composure.

And since this is *not* solved by buying a giant
processor (I tried that), you'll have to find some
other solution.

There's got to be *some* way to keep that spinning
wheel, in the drawer.

Paul
  #29  
Old March 11th 15, 12:50 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Help with buying new hard drive

Johnny wrote:
On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:07:25 -0700
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:58:32 -0500, Johnny wrote:


I'm not happy with this computer the way it is, and I don't think
it's Windows 8.1 that's causing it to be slow. I think it has to
do with the Dell and Intel programs installed on it.



Definitely not! What is installed has *no* effect on a computer's
speed. What is *running* does.

Now, if the Dell and Intel programs are installed *and* running,
that's a different story. But it's easy to find out whether they are
causing it to be slow. Simply shut down the programs and see how fast
the computer then is (if necessary, you can "end task" for them in
Task Manager).


They are running, but I was afraid to shut them down, after reading it
caused a blue screen for some people that did shut them down.


Before you begin your custom install, remember to burn the driver
CD that the Dell disc set can make. If you burn recovery media
with a Dell, you get maybe three DVDs for the 12GB or so of
OS contents, plus a fourth DVD with a few hundred megabytes
of drivers. The one you may want to keep, is whatever
Dell offers for the video card driver. If Device Manager
isn't clean, you may have others to grab from that disc.

There are some hardware drivers to watch out for. Intel offers
a "Management Engine" driver, something that doesn't appear to
have a use on my desktop machine. Only a couple hundred KB of files
would be needed to tidy up the MEI entry in Device Manager.
Yet, the Intel download is 50MB or so, and contains a lot
of "stuff". One item of interest, is an "Identity Protection"
package. I cannot find any documentation for it. It screwed
up my browser. I see it is still inserting itself in Firefox
(two instances of its plugin are now in Firefox). I don't
know what it's for, but I can't recommend it. It causes
downloads in Firefox to be discarded, without asking the
user. So that's an installation I'd think twice about.
I'd need documentation to see if this has any value at
all - the fact you cannot "untick" the box for it in the
Intel installer, tells you it's evil.

Paul
  #30  
Old March 11th 15, 01:11 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
(PeteCresswell)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,933
Default Help with buying new hard drive

Per Stormin' Norman:
Have you checked your administrative error logs to see if you are generating a
lot of DISK or other errors?


+1.

Couple times I have had a drive that was throwing errors slow the entire
system down - and there was no way to know about that unless one checked
error logs and/or something like Hard Disk Sentinel.
--
Pete Cresswell
 




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