Accessing Files Incredibly Slow

Hi all,

For the past week or so, the Windows Vista partition of my computer (it's a
Macbook Pro using Bootcamp, but as you'll see this has nothing to do with the
problem) has been running incredibly slow - not programs, themselves, but
anything that has to view the files on my disk. Programs take a long time to
start but then run fine, and trying to view files or folders takes an
incredibly long time (like 2 minutes to load the main 'Computer' screen or 1
minute to open the 'Downloads' window in Firefox or load a Save dialog).

Currently, my Vista hard drive partition is very full, with only about 5.8GB
of 50GB avaliable. I'm planning to eventually remove some of the larger
games/etc and relocate them to my external hard drive, but it's been at this
level for several weeks so I'm not convinced that has anything to do with it
- the problem has only existed for about a week and a half right now.

I've run an AVG Antivirus scan, scanned with Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware, and
checked all my firewall settings (I'm using PC Tools) - everything seems
fine. But now, just booting the computer takes almost 20 minutes, then it's
another 30 minutes of 'preparing my desktop', then finally another 20 before
I can actually do anything while Windows Explorer loads. The OS X area of my
computer seems completely unaffected, and the only thing I've done different
then I usually do on Vista is that I mounted a network drive at a friend's
house about a week before the problem started.

I realize that a lot of you will say 'well, if he's using Mac he needs to
talk to Apple' or something, but THIS IS NOT AN OS X OR MACBOOK ISSUE. There
have been NO other problems with my computer besides this one, and as I
mentioned, my OS X (and Ubuntu Linux) partitions are both fine.

Bookworm wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> For the past week or so, the Windows Vista partition of my computer (it's a
> Macbook Pro using Bootcamp, but as you'll see this has nothing to do with the
> problem) has been running incredibly slow - not programs, themselves, but
> anything that has to view the files on my disk. Programs take a long time to
> start but then run fine, and trying to view files or folders takes an
> incredibly long time (like 2 minutes to load the main 'Computer' screen or 1
> minute to open the 'Downloads' window in Firefox or load a Save dialog).
>
> Currently, my Vista hard drive partition is very full, with only about 5.8GB
> of 50GB avaliable. I'm planning to eventually remove some of the larger
> games/etc and relocate them to my external hard drive, but it's been at this
> level for several weeks so I'm not convinced that has anything to do with it
> - the problem has only existed for about a week and a half right now.
>
> I've run an AVG Antivirus scan, scanned with Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware, and
> checked all my firewall settings (I'm using PC Tools) - everything seems
> fine. But now, just booting the computer takes almost 20 minutes, then it's
> another 30 minutes of 'preparing my desktop', then finally another 20 before
> I can actually do anything while Windows Explorer loads. The OS X area of my
> computer seems completely unaffected, and the only thing I've done different
> then I usually do on Vista is that I mounted a network drive at a friend's
> house about a week before the problem started.
>
> I realize that a lot of you will say 'well, if he's using Mac he needs to
> talk to Apple' or something, but THIS IS NOT AN OS X OR MACBOOK ISSUE. There
> have been NO other problems with my computer besides this one, and as I
> mentioned, my OS X (and Ubuntu Linux) partitions are both fine.

No, I'm not going to say this is a Mac issue. But I am going to say -
clear off some of that stuff *now*. I understand that you don't think
the lack of space has anything to do with it, but I think it does. Get
at least 10GB free and see how things go. After you've done that, if
you're still having problems post back.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP

Thank god. Will do, assuming I can get onto Vista...

"Malke" wrote:

> Bookworm wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > For the past week or so, the Windows Vista partition of my computer (it's a
> > Macbook Pro using Bootcamp, but as you'll see this has nothing to do with the
> > problem) has been running incredibly slow - not programs, themselves, but
> > anything that has to view the files on my disk. Programs take a long time to
> > start but then run fine, and trying to view files or folders takes an
> > incredibly long time (like 2 minutes to load the main 'Computer' screen or 1
> > minute to open the 'Downloads' window in Firefox or load a Save dialog).
> >
> > Currently, my Vista hard drive partition is very full, with only about 5.8GB
> > of 50GB avaliable. I'm planning to eventually remove some of the larger
> > games/etc and relocate them to my external hard drive, but it's been at this
> > level for several weeks so I'm not convinced that has anything to do with it
> > - the problem has only existed for about a week and a half right now.
> >
> > I've run an AVG Antivirus scan, scanned with Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware, and
> > checked all my firewall settings (I'm using PC Tools) - everything seems
> > fine. But now, just booting the computer takes almost 20 minutes, then it's
> > another 30 minutes of 'preparing my desktop', then finally another 20 before
> > I can actually do anything while Windows Explorer loads. The OS X area of my
> > computer seems completely unaffected, and the only thing I've done different
> > then I usually do on Vista is that I mounted a network drive at a friend's
> > house about a week before the problem started.
> >
> > I realize that a lot of you will say 'well, if he's using Mac he needs to
> > talk to Apple' or something, but THIS IS NOT AN OS X OR MACBOOK ISSUE. There
> > have been NO other problems with my computer besides this one, and as I
> > mentioned, my OS X (and Ubuntu Linux) partitions are both fine.
>
> No, I'm not going to say this is a Mac issue. But I am going to say -
> clear off some of that stuff *now*. I understand that you don't think
> the lack of space has anything to do with it, but I think it does. Get
> at least 10GB free and see how things go. After you've done that, if
> you're still having problems post back.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP
>

Sorry to bump this thread, but I wanted to also let you know that when I
unplugged my external hard drive (one of two) and booted into Vista, the OS
ran about 50% faster... it's still quite slow, but much better then it had
been.

I have two external HDS, a 160GB portable one with a FAT32 formatted
partition for downloading stuff (50GB) and a 100GB partition for Apple's Time
Machine which is Mac formatted. My other external is a big 320GB FAT32 disk
for storing large games and videos, and I never seem to have problems when
booting with it connected. Could this have something to do with my problem..?

"Bookworm" wrote:

> Thank god. Will do, assuming I can get onto Vista...
>
> "Malke" wrote:
>
> > Bookworm wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > For the past week or so, the Windows Vista partition of my computer (it's a
> > > Macbook Pro using Bootcamp, but as you'll see this has nothing to do with the
> > > problem) has been running incredibly slow - not programs, themselves, but
> > > anything that has to view the files on my disk. Programs take a long time to
> > > start but then run fine, and trying to view files or folders takes an
> > > incredibly long time (like 2 minutes to load the main 'Computer' screen or 1
> > > minute to open the 'Downloads' window in Firefox or load a Save dialog).
> > >
> > > Currently, my Vista hard drive partition is very full, with only about 5.8GB
> > > of 50GB avaliable. I'm planning to eventually remove some of the larger
> > > games/etc and relocate them to my external hard drive, but it's been at this
> > > level for several weeks so I'm not convinced that has anything to do with it
> > > - the problem has only existed for about a week and a half right now.
> > >
> > > I've run an AVG Antivirus scan, scanned with Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware, and
> > > checked all my firewall settings (I'm using PC Tools) - everything seems
> > > fine. But now, just booting the computer takes almost 20 minutes, then it's
> > > another 30 minutes of 'preparing my desktop', then finally another 20 before
> > > I can actually do anything while Windows Explorer loads. The OS X area of my
> > > computer seems completely unaffected, and the only thing I've done different
> > > then I usually do on Vista is that I mounted a network drive at a friend's
> > > house about a week before the problem started.
> > >
> > > I realize that a lot of you will say 'well, if he's using Mac he needs to
> > > talk to Apple' or something, but THIS IS NOT AN OS X OR MACBOOK ISSUE. There
> > > have been NO other problems with my computer besides this one, and as I
> > > mentioned, my OS X (and Ubuntu Linux) partitions are both fine.
> >
> > No, I'm not going to say this is a Mac issue. But I am going to say -
> > clear off some of that stuff *now*. I understand that you don't think
> > the lack of space has anything to do with it, but I think it does. Get
> > at least 10GB free and see how things go. After you've done that, if
> > you're still having problems post back.
> >
> >
> > Malke
> > --
> > Elephant Boy Computers
> > www.elephantboycomputers.com
> > "Don't Panic!"
> > MS-MVP
> >

Alright, I have about 12.4 GB of free space on my drive now. Is that enough?

Bookworm wrote:
> Alright, I have about 12.4 GB of free space on my drive now. Is that enough?

It should be. Now for some testing.

1. Run without any external hard drives connected. How does that work?
If all is well...
2. Then connect the drive that doesn't have the Mac-formatted partition
on it. How does that work? If all is well...
3. Remove that drive and connect the drive that has the Mac-formatted
partition on it. How does that work? If all is well...
4. You don't connect both drives at the same time, do you? If you do,
then connect both drives and test. We know the MacBook Pro is powerful
enough, but I don't know about running two drives at once plus the
internal drive. It doesn't seem likely to me that you'd do this, but
since I can't see your machine...

Obviously if you hit a wall and all is *not* well at a certain step,
you've got to troubleshoot from there, but this gives you a
troubleshooting path so you can start narrowing down the culprit.

The external drive you use for Time Machine must be firewire; is the
other drive USB? Since you mention Time Machine, you must be running
Leopard. Is your Boot Camp one you created in Leopard or did you upgrade
to Leopard and leave a previous Boot Camp install on? The older Boot
Camp isn't compatible with Leopard and perhaps you've got old drivers
involved. I'm just throwing out some ideas here. I've installed XP on
Boot Camps, both under Tiger and Leopard, but not Vista.

Hope this helps get you started in figuring out what's going on.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP

Alright, well:

When I boot up with NO drives attached it's fairly slow.

When I attach my larger external hard drive, the non-partitioned one, it's
not noticably different. I'll try the other one and the two together in a
moment.

I usually keep both connected so I have quick access to my files; and
remember - I've been doing this for several weeks now with no problems. I
also have no problems on the OS X side (which is Leopard. My Boot Camp
install is from Tiger, but I have upgraded the drivers... I think).

Bookworm wrote:
> Alright, well:
>
> When I boot up with NO drives attached it's fairly slow.
>
> When I attach my larger external hard drive, the non-partitioned one, it's
> not noticably different. I'll try the other one and the two together in a
> moment.
>
> I usually keep both connected so I have quick access to my files; and
> remember - I've been doing this for several weeks now with no problems. I
> also have no problems on the OS X side (which is Leopard. My Boot Camp
> install is from Tiger, but I have upgraded the drivers... I think).
>

OK, if you've been doing this for several weeks with no problems then
something has changed in that time. What? I don't know whether updating
Leopard affects the Boot Camp drivers or not. I wouldn't think so, but I
don't know that for sure. On the Vista side, look and see if there are
any clues in Vista's own troubleshooting logs:

Control Panel
System and Maintenance
Performance information and tools
Advanced tools in left pane

Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Problem Reports and Solutions >
View Problem History

Also look in Event Viewer - Start Orb>Search box>type: eventvwr.msc


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP

As far as I know, upgrading Leopard wouldn't affect the Windows partition...
Mac can't write to NTFS formatted drives anyhow.

I turned off Problem Reporting when I upgraded, I think because it was
either annoying or conflicting with something...

Where specifically in Event Viewer should I look? There's like some 10,000
different events in a bunch of different logs....

"Malke" wrote:

> Bookworm wrote:
> > Alright, well:
> >
> > When I boot up with NO drives attached it's fairly slow.
> >
> > When I attach my larger external hard drive, the non-partitioned one, it's
> > not noticably different. I'll try the other one and the two together in a
> > moment.
> >
> > I usually keep both connected so I have quick access to my files; and
> > remember - I've been doing this for several weeks now with no problems. I
> > also have no problems on the OS X side (which is Leopard. My Boot Camp
> > install is from Tiger, but I have upgraded the drivers... I think).
> >
>
> OK, if you've been doing this for several weeks with no problems then
> something has changed in that time. What? I don't know whether updating
> Leopard affects the Boot Camp drivers or not. I wouldn't think so, but I
> don't know that for sure. On the Vista side, look and see if there are
> any clues in Vista's own troubleshooting logs:
>
> Control Panel
> System and Maintenance
> Performance information and tools
> Advanced tools in left pane
>
> Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Problem Reports and Solutions >
> View Problem History
>
> Also look in Event Viewer - Start Orb>Search box>type: eventvwr.msc
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP
>

Bookworm wrote:
> As far as I know, upgrading Leopard wouldn't affect the Windows partition...
> Mac can't write to NTFS formatted drives anyhow.
>
> I turned off Problem Reporting when I upgraded, I think because it was
> either annoying or conflicting with something...
>
> Where specifically in Event Viewer should I look? There's like some 10,000
> different events in a bunch of different logs....

It should be fairly easy to tell in Event Viewer if something is wrong.
There will be a red or yellow warning symbols. You want to be looking in
Application and in System around the time things started going wrong.
I'm sorry, but that's as specific as I can get without actually seeing
the machine. Remember, the point of all of this is to try and figure out
what has changed since things worked. So use that as your time frame.
Obviously you don't need to be looking at Event Viewer items from months
ago.

What about the rest of the troubleshooting tree? You said that attaching
the non-partitioned drive doesn't cause a problem. What happens when you
attach the partitioned one?


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP