# PC startup gradually getting slower



## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

I have had my PC for two years. It never started particularly quickly. And recently, I have often had to wait 10 minutes just for the window to input my PIN to appear. And it can take up to 20 minutes to fully reboot.

I check my startup programs on occasion and disable the ones that I consider unnecessary right away. And yesterday, I used the “Free Up Space Now” in Settings, which gave me about seven more gigabytes. I have never had a with my hard-disk space but thought this might somehow help. It didn't.

My PC also has Norton Security Premium, which cleans up and defrags my PC regularly. I understand that this software is "heavy" and can slow down PCs, but I have used it on two other PCs with no problems.

What else can I do?


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, there are many reason's for a slowing computer, one of the most common is a HDD that is beginning to fail. You should first go to search and type:- command prompt, right click on the returned command prompt and select "run as administrator" cmd prompt will open. Copy and paste the below cmd into the cmd window, it will append to the prompt, press enter.

echo > 0 & systeminfo >> 0 & tasklist /v >> 0 & net start >> 0 & echo >> 0 & notepad 0

Notepad will open, please use the "Go Advanced" forum option and attach the notepad file to your reply.

Open another cmd prompt as admin (as shown) and at this type:-

chkdsk /r (press enter) say Y to the volume in use prompt and restart computer.

This runs a file system check and produces a report when finished, please note what the report say's, and let us know. Be aware this process will take a long time, be patient even if it appears to hang, let it finish (hours).

Now MS have been working hard to improve security, to this end Windows Defender now offers the home user the most advanced and effective regime of security protection. 

As a consequence it is preventing third party utils like Norton from operating effectively on your machine, hence the issues many people are having. Those of us in the know have removed all third party AV's and now enjoy superior protection and improved AV integration, something Norton was never good at. I strongly recommend you get rid of it, you will need to use their uninstaller to be properly rid of it:-

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/au/home/current/solutions/v60392881_EndUserProfile_en_us


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks, jenae. I easily got the info in Notepad. But the check disk would not work because it said something else is in use. It will check when I next restart, which I may not do until tomorrow considering that I have work to do and a reboot takes too long.

You said I should attach the system info that is now in a Notepad file. But isn't it dangerous to send that?

As for Norton, I continue to use it because I've backed up a lot of files, and I like their spam blocker for Outlook.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

P.S. My PC runs fast AFTER it fully boots.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

That is a long startup time. Before you run CHKDSK, make sure you have a backup of your important data. If the drive is failing and is on its last leg, intensive activity such as chkdsk can send it over the edge before the process even completes! For a quicker look at the disk's health, download CrystalDiskInfo from https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ and run it. Post its screenshot in your next reply. Hopeful the S.M.A.R.T stats will tell us what's going on.

It is safe to post the info requested. We would never ask you to post something unsafe to do so.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks. The system info is attached.

How can I turn off the check disk that is now scheduled to run?


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, no millions of users post that info, it's far less intrusive then say Speccy, nothing there can identify you or reveal anything you need to worry about, we cannot help you by simply guessing what system info you have. 

Removing Norton will improve your security you have disabled the most advanced AV currently in use, Widows defender, for an alternative that is inferior, and will cause you performance issues. It's your choice, however you will only experience further problems as windows hardens security, already they advise to disable third party AV's before attempting windows updates. That alone should alert you to third party Av's integration problems. Norton's spam protection is superseded by outlooks own security, all part of Windows defender. 

I explained that the chkdsk would say the volume was in use and to press Y, restart computer for the chkdsk to run. (please read our instructions carefully).

In addition if you are slowly booting it is highly likely Norton doing it (known issue) you should run a clean boot, to eliminate other issues.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

Also startup programs can cause slow boot, Press the win + x keys together, select Powershell(admin) from the options. Copy the below cmd and right click anywhere in the powershell window the cmd appends straight to the prompt, press enter.

Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select-Object Name, command, Location, User | Format-List | out-file $home\file.txt
start notepad $home\file.txt

Notepad will open with a list of your startup programs please copy and paste them here.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Here is the Crystal Disk screenshot. I couldn't maximize the window. Is there enough info?


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Here are the startup programs.

As for Norton, another issue is that I just paid my annual subscription price yesterday...


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

InfoHungry said:


> Here is the Crystal Disk screenshot. I couldn't maximize the window. Is there enough info?


 The report looks good, but you could have done better than posting a Word document. For future posts of screenshots, just attach the image file (jpg or png) instead. As for CrystalDiskInfo, you can copy the S.M.A.R.T info via the *Edit > Copy* menu and then paste it here or in a notepad and save it as a text file and attach it here, just to be thorough, but I'm not seeing any cause for alarm in the info provided.



Let the scheduled disk check run and perform the clean boot as suggested.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Here is what I got from Edit > Copy. Still, look OK? And do I really need to do the chkdsk?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 7.6.1 (C) 2008-2018 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 10 [10.0 Build 17134] (x64)
Date : 2018/08/07 16:50:12

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
+ Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Family Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
- ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUE0N
- Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(1) ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB : 1000.2 GB [0/0/0, pd1] - st

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
Firmware : 2BA30001
Serial Number : S30YJ9AH223999
Disk Size : 1000.2 GB (7.9/137.4/1000.2/1000.2)
Buffer Size : 16384 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 1953525168
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : Serial ATA
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 6
Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
Power On Hours : 10417 hours
Power On Count : 1328 count
Temperature : 34 C (93 F)
Health Status : Good
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 0080h [ON]
AAM Level : FE00h [OFF]
Drive Letter : C: D:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 _51 000000000003 Read Error Rate
02 252 252 __0 000000000000 Throughput Performance
03 _92 _88 _25 0000000009CF Spin-Up Time
04 _99 _99 __0 000000000533 Start/Stop Count
05 252 252 _10 000000000000 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 252 252 _51 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
08 252 252 _15 000000000000 Seek Time Performance
09 100 100 __0 0000000028B1 Power-On Hours
0A 252 252 _51 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0B 100 100 __0 00000000011E Recalibration Retries
0C _99 _99 __0 000000000530 Power Cycle Count
BF 100 100 __0 0000000000A8 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 00000000000D Power-off Retract Count
C2 _64 _56 __0 002C000A0022 Temperature
C3 100 100 __0 000000000000 Hardware ECC recovered
C4 252 252 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count
C5 252 252 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 252 252 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
C8 100 100 __0 000000001EF2 Write Error Rate
DF 100 100 __0 00000000011E Load/Unload Retry Count
E1 _99 _99 __0 000000004033 Load/Unload Cycle Count

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
000: 0040 3FFF C837 000F 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 5333 3059 4A39 4148 3232 3339 3939 2020 2020 2020
020: 0000 8000 0004 3242 4133 3030 3031 5354 3130 3030
030: 4C4D 3032 3420 484E 2D4D 3130 314D 4242 2020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 4000 2F00
050: 4000 0200 0200 0006 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0000
060: FFFF 0FFF 0000 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 0F0E 0006 004C 0048
080: 01FF 0028 746B 7F29 6123 7469 BC09 6123 203F 0066
090: 0066 0080 FFFE 0000 FE00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: 6DB0 7470 0000 0000 0000 0000 6003 0000 5000 4CF2
110: 11D6 8F8A 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401C
120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0021 0000
130: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
140: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0003 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 4000
210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1518 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 103F 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 0400 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 66A5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 2F 00 64 64 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 26
010: 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 23 00 5C 58 CF
020: 09 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 63 63 33 05 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 33 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 2E
040: 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 24 00 FC FC 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 32 00 64 64 B1 28 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 32 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 32
070: 00 64 64 1E 01 00 00 00 00 00 0C 32 00 63 63 30
080: 05 00 00 00 00 00 BF 22 00 64 64 A8 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C0 22 00 64 64 0D 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 02
0A0: 00 40 38 22 00 0A 00 2C 00 00 C3 3A 00 64 64 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C4 32 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C5 32 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 30
0D0: 00 FC FC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 36 00 C8 C8 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C8 2A 00 64 64 F2 1E 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 DF 32 00 64 64 1E 01 00 00 00 00 00 E1 32
100: 00 63 63 33 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 32 00 5B
170: 03 00 01 00 02 D6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 A9

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 19 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 33
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 0F 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C3 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 DF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E1 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3B


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

InfoHungry said:


> Here is what I got from Edit > Copy. Still, look OK? And do I really need to do the chkdsk?
> 
> ```
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ...


Yeah, still looks good and yeah, you should still run the disk check because it will not only check for bad sectors, but will also fix filesystem errors and inconsistencies which can slow down a system. However, you can skip it and perform the clean boot first. When you reboot, you will get a countdown timer telling you to press any key to skip the disk check. If the countdown expires, the disk check will run and you won't be able to cancel it, and once its running, you shouldn't interfere with it or things can get worse (data loss and corruption).


Let us know the outcome of clean boot.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, thanks for that, looks like Stan posted during my preparations. Does your version of Norton have a firewall? Windows defender firewall is running. You have a lot of bloatware, still windows ten should handle it, do you clear temp files and use windows clean up at all?

In addition you appear to be on v17134.165, there are two latter QU's missing (cumulative updates). KB 4340917 , KB4345421, current version is .191.

A clean boot is also my preferred diagnostic approach at this time, and the chkdsk is essential, it repairs file system and will ensures system integrity, plus it gives a more accurate output then third party utils in regards to sector problems, (these are protected by the OS and chkdsk is one of the only utils that can accurately read them, something generally not known, new in v1803).

Startup items make little difference to startup time, still you can disable ALL items and windows will still boot. Most of us only run the security utils at start, anything else you can start, when you want to use it. The exception is a program that is corrupted, and having problems starting you can run a bootlog to see what happens, and even a verbose boot which lets you see if anything is hanging. For now do the clean boot, and do run the chkdsk.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

First, for Stancestans.

OK. That will be in a day or two. But thanks for your help!


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

And for jenae. I wish to thank you, too.

As for your latest post, yes my Norton has a firewall. And under my PC Settings for Windows Defender Firewall, it says "These settings are being managed by vendor application Norton Security" and "Private networks... Not connected" and "Guest or public networks... Connected".

Regarding clean-up, my first post in this thread has "yesterday, I used the Free Up Space Now in Settings, which gave me about seven more gigabytes".

I don't know why I don't have the KB 4340917 , KB4345421. I just checked Windows Update. It said I was up to date as of 3 hours ago. But I next manually checked for updates and Windows is now preparing to download KB4340917, but not the other one.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

A Clean Boot is not the same as Disk Cleanup. What you did (Free Up Space) is just a disk cleanup. A clean boot, on the other hand, implies disabling ALL non-microsoft services and ALL startup items, so that no third-party software runs when your computer starts. We use this to determine if a third-party software is responsible, so go ahead and perform a clean boot as described here https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows


Note: performing a clean boot involves a reboot, so remember to skip the scheduled disk check (for now) when the system reboots. You will still have to run chkdsk, it's just that we've moved clean boot to the top of things to do, since it's faster to do and get results than the check disk.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Oh, I realize that about disk cleanup. I only added that comment because jenae asked "do you clear temp files and use windows clean up at all?".


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

If you want to solve the issue you need to run checkdisk right away and I am not convinced anyone has really made you aware how much Norton products have actually slowed down your system but maybe if I explain using Norton software in a pc is like placing several cans of "Bardahl" in a brand new auto engine not yet broken in and you can read what car manufacturers have to say about that, that is no different than running any Norton product on your computer and you are actually running several.
Using the Norton uninstaller to remove it is the second essential thing in solving your problem and you do realize if you do not see immediate instant gratification you can always reinstall it. I cannot tell you over the years how many pcs have literally smiled and kissed me for ridding them of those awful products, and the effects are immediately noticeable, almost like being "born again".


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

The clean boot seemed to go well. The startup speed seems to have gone down to 10 minutes. 
The check disk took about 4 hours. There is supposed to be some kind of report. But I did not see anything. I was in the same room during almost the entire check process. It stayed at 10% for 95% of the time, which I heard is normal. I went away for about 15 minutes after 3.5+ hours and my screen was blank when I returned. After waiting about 5 minutes and with nothing happening, I clicked my mouse and the PIN window appeared and I completed the restart. But, again, no indication of a report.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

InfoHungry said:


> The clean boot seemed to go well. The startup speed seems to have gone down to 10 minutes.
> The check disk took about 4 hours. There is supposed to be some kind of report. But I did not see anything. I was in the same room during almost the entire check process. It stayed at 10% for 95% of the time, which I heard is normal. I went away for about 15 minutes after 3.5+ hours and my screen was blank when I returned. After waiting about 5 minutes and with nothing happening, I clicked my mouse and the PIN window appeared and I completed the restart. But, again, no indication of a report.


 That's good to hear, although 10 minutes is still way too slow. You can retrieve the chkdsk report as described here https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/40822-read-chkdsk-log-event-viewer-windows-10-a.html. You can simply copy the powershell command-line on that website and right-click inside the powershell window (this pastes it automatically) then press Enter and copy-paste the output in your next reply.

I suggest you stop and disable the Superfetch service and then report back. I've had problems with that service on my computer, and it's among the first things I disable on a new installation. Ironically, the service is supposed to improve performance with time, but in my case it only causes slowdowns and very high disk activity. You will see similar reports on the MS forums and other places as well, so it's worth a try. To disable it, visit and follow the instructions here https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-superfetch/


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, well, if you keep Norton no one can help, your problems will simply get worse.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks, Stancestans.

Here is what I got about my chkdsk. Look OK?

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk. 

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
625408 file records processed. 
File verification completed.
23208 large file records processed. 
0 bad file records processed. 

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
38898 reparse records processed. 
769720 index entries processed. 
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. 
38898 reparse records processed. 

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 19977 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 19977 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 19977 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
72157 data files processed. 
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
34096664 USN bytes processed. 
Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
625392 files processed. 
File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
198075338 free clusters processed. 
Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

929292287 KB total disk space.
136013080 KB in 307201 files.
214116 KB in 72160 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
763735 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
792301356 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
232323071 total allocation units on disk.
198075339 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 8b 09 00 19 c6 05 00 1f f0 0a 00 00 00 00 00 ................
18 0e 00 00 da 89 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

InfoHungry said:


> Thanks, Stancestans.
> 
> Here is what I got about my chkdsk. Look OK?
> 
> ...


CHKDSK looks good, no bad sectors reported and no critical problems found. Now, follow the others' suggestions about Norton. Getting rid of it shouldn't be a big deal, if it doesn't prove their case, you can always re-install it, but this investigation is incomplete and won't move anywhere until you get rid of it from your system.


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## BN60 (Jul 1, 2011)

InfoHungry,
Follow Stancestans advice about stopping and disabling Superfetch. I had a machine with similar issues as you describe. During startup, the hard drive was constantly at 98% usage for an hour. After searching for many hours for solutions (with MS knowledge base being of no help), I followed the significant number of recommendations available via Google search to stop and disable Superfetch and I think file indexing and eventually the long startup times reduced to normal. I also discovered that the slow startup was a symptom of Windows 10 trying to check in to MS and check on updates and automatically downloading them. Every time one update failed (and both Win10 updates lately have had failure issues at first release), the machine would start over trying to search and download for updates. The machine as not on long enough to complete the cycle for several updates. Eventually, I changed the energy use settings to never shut off and left it on all weekend. Once it started, it took over 24 hours for all updates to download, prepare and install and reboot. I forced it to look for updates a few times in that cycle and it found updates it did not find automatically. Eventually, the slow start ups disappeared as the machine quit storing partial update downloads to disk and the disk usage dropped. It also helped that I added more memory to stop high disk usage caused by writing to disk cache as well. (I went from 2GB to 4GB.)



Just some feedback from another user. Norton is a system hog, btw. Follow Janae's advice and delete it. It became bloatware several years ago. Best wishes on finding some relief.


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## InfoHungry (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks, BN60. But I used Task Manager to check my SuperFetch. It has minimal impact during use (don't know about startup). It gets flagged with a tan color at worst, and that is for Memory, not Disk. Norton is a bit worse, coming in at tan for CPU and Disk. However, my main culprits are System (usually orange-ish and in the low 30's for CPU) and FireFox (orange-ish and 3.6 MB for Memory). Outlook is also orange-ish for CPU.
I assume my FireFox would be better if I didn't usually have about 20 tabs open...


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

InfoHungry said:


> Thanks, BN60. But I used Task Manager to check my SuperFetch. It has minimal impact during use (don't know about startup). It gets flagged with a tan color at worst, and that is for Memory, not Disk. Norton is a bit worse, coming in at tan for CPU and Disk. However, my main culprits are System (usually orange-ish and in the low 30's for CPU) and FireFox (orange-ish and 3.6 MB for Memory). Outlook is also orange-ish for CPU.
> I assume my FireFox would be better if I didn't usually have about 20 tabs open...


In that case then there is no point in disabling Superfetch. We are still waiting for the results of completely uninstalling Norton. If that is not an option then I'm afraid we won't be able to assist you further with this issue.


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