Full backup causes slow down?

[XPerienced65]

Hi,

Someone backed up the entire hard drive to the C drive on a computer. Does
this slow down the computer? Does it affect how fast the computer boots?
Also, what causes items to be listed multiple times and check-marked in
MSCONFIG Startup? Thanks!

 

[peter]

Since usually the C drive is where all files and programs reside it most
times being the only hard drive
in a system it is NOT a good idea to back up the drive to itself. So try to
delete that backup or better yet copy it to
a DVD depending upon the size and then delete from C drive.
The slow down can occur when that backup takes too much space on the HD,
If you have multiple items that are the same checked in msconfig uncheck
them.
peter

 

[Daave]

Someone backed up the entire hard drive to the C drive on a computer.

I'm not clear. Who did this? Very often, the "entire hard drive" *is*
C:, so I'm not sure what you mean! "Backing up" also has several
meanings (e.g., one can back up all the data or one can have a reliable
"backup" of an entire drive by imaging or cloning it), so please post
back with more detail.

Also, what causes items to be listed multiple times and check-marked
in
MSCONFIG Startup?

Usually this is because you uncheck an item rather than going into the
program's preferences and configuring it that way. When the PC reboots,
the item comes back. Now you two of the same: one is "disabled" and the
other is enabled. If you give us the actual name of the process, we can
probably help you figure out the correct way to prevent that program
from loading automatically at startup (and tell you how to get rid of
the duplicate entries). Keep in mind that msconfig is best used as a
troubleshooting tool and is not the best way to disable starup
programs/processes.

 

[XPerienced65]

I go to a tech school where computer students use the various computers. This
one particular computer was extremely slow to boot. Turns out in the instance
of the startup items, someone (as a prank) put 42 shortcuts in the startup
folder. However, even after removing those, the computer boots slow. I
suspected the 1.5 GB backup to the C: drive. It was a backup of C: to the C:
drive so I deleted it. I ran antispyware, antivirus, CCleaner, checked the
boot order, and many other things still it takes a good 1 1/2 min to boot.

Any suggestions?

 

[Daave]

1 1/2 minutes to boot is not unacceptable IMO. Very often , what is
happening is the antivirus program is updating its definitions and is
perhaps even doing a scan. If you'd rather this not happen at bootup,
schedule it to occur at a time when the PC is not being used. For
instance, schedule weekly scans and schedule them to occur at 3 AM (of
course the PC will need to be left on overnight one night a week).

I'm still not sure what you mean by backup. Was it data files? Was an
image of C: made?

Anyway, regarding sluggishness in general, here are its usual causes:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of *certain types* of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
Otherwise, you may want to explore this further by running Page File
Monitor for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/