[dba-Tech] hard drive failure - maybe - diagnostic

[Tina N Fields]

Hi Ed,

That's one of the strong possibilities. Thanks,

T

Tina Norris Fields
231-322-2787
tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-com

On 11/12/2017 5:46 AM, Ed Tesiny wrote:
> Not knowing much of what these knowledgeable folks are suggesting, as a
> light weight, I would back up everything you can and shop for a new
> machine...Prices are good now and will get better as the Holiday approaches.
>
> On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 3:50 AM, Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
>
>> Hi Tina
>>
>> If you regularly can defrag the drive, there is probably nothing wrong
>> with the harddisk.
>>
>> Make a backup of the user data and reinstall Windows to get rid of all the
>> old stuff - you could even upgrade to Windows 10 to get a speedier machine.
>> And replace the harddisk with an SSD If you wish to spend some good money.
>>
>> In no normal user scenario Windows Firewall should be left switched off.
>>
>> /gustav
>> ________________________________________
>> Fra: dba-Tech <dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> på vegne af Tina N
>> Fields <tinanfields at torchlake.com>
>> Sendt: 11. november 2017 22:41:36
>> Til: Off Topic; dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
>> Emne: [dba-Tech] hard drive failure - maybe - diagnostic
>>
>> Is Spin-rite still a good tool to use to diagnose potential hard drive
>> failure, for a Win 7 laptop?
>>
>> My son-in-law has a Win 7 Dell Vostro 3500, vintage 2010. It has
>> recently become extremely slow, taking upwards of 10 minutes to boot,
>> and over 5 minutes to launch programs. Malware-bytes finds no threats.
>> It's been routinely defragged. Until sometime in the recent past, it was
>> using a VPN to remote into the home office out in Beverly,
>> Massachusetts. The company switched to putting everything in the cloud
>> sometime in the last couple years (I think).
>>
>> I had installed Vipre on it from my subscription, but the IT guys in the
>> home office wanted everyone to have the same anti-virus tool, so they
>> uninstalled Vipre and installed their AVG. They also controlled all the
>> Windows updates.
>>
>> I looked at this computer yesterday, and found no anti-virus protection
>> on it, the Windows update feature disabled, and Windows Defender
>> firewall off. I think this box has been left unprotected since the
>> company put everything in the cloud. My son-in-law believed that the IT
>> guys were still taking care of his protection and updates. Since they
>> are no longer connected via VPN, I'm thinking that just isn't true.
>>
>> So, I looked through the processes running and the start-up items. There
>> were three identical Intel entries in the start-up; I unchecked two of
>> them, which did speed up the boot process a bit. It had been over 15
>> minutes before.
>>
>> As slow as it is to launch a browser, once the browser is up, accessing
>> web pages is right up to speed.
>>
>> We did download and run Malware-Bytes, which found no threats.
>>
>> I discovered he didn't have a recent backup of his data, so, he spent
>> yesterday evening and some of today doing that.
>>
>> I'm noodling away on this and wondering if the problem is a failing hard
>> drive.
>>
>> So, any other thoughts? And is there any other diagnostic software I
>> should bring to bear on this problem?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> --
>> Tina Norris Fields
>> 231-322-2787
>> tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-com
>> _______________________________________________
>> dba-Tech mailing list
>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>
> _______________________________________________
> dba-Tech mailing list
> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com