Reformatting the hard disc ... can some programs stay?

[Rudyard]

I have a problem with my work PC that has been an annoyance for years now that I have never been able to solve after posting.

When I right click on a file to say copy it or cut it or just check the properties etc there is a massive wait - from 10 to 30 seconds before the little box pops up.

I recently switched from Norton AV to Bitdefender and the problem seems to have worsend especially when using the cut and paste commands. However the problem is still there when I didnt have any AV or when I shut down the AV software so I dont think that is the root cause (although I am not sure).

Someone suggested the only way to fix it would be to reformat the drive and reinstall windows.

Now that would be a major effort as there is a lot on the work PC that would drive me nuts having to redo it.

So my question is when reformating or reinstalling windows is there a way to leave some programs so they dont have to be reinstalled? Can you sort of work around them and just do the operating system??

Or alternatively could anyone magically solve the issue or point me to a place to start ruling things out?

*edit: Do those 'hijack this' type programs help with this situation??

[gll99]

Googled "right click on file slow" and this is one of many sites that came up.

Not saying it will solve your problem but it's a start

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

For more sites, try you own google like this

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-12,GGLD:en...+on+file+slow+

Hope it helps

[redwudz]

I would try some antispyware programs first. HiJackthis is one. You can also do a online scan from a site like: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ Other programs like SpyBot S&D are also good.

A few other things. If you are running XP, check Task Manager and see what programs and processes are running and how much CPU and memory are being used. That might give you a clue to what is slowing things down.

Reformatting would normally wipe out everything on the drive. You would have to save what files you don't want to lose .

Instead, you could try just reinstalling Windows. That should keep most files intact, but you will have to reinstall your programs. You would still want to save all important files first.

A complete repartition, reformat is best if you really want to start with a 'clean slate'. This will definitely destroy all data on the drive.

Before trying any of those solutions, you would always want to back up the important files to DVD or CD.

[ahhaa]

Hi Rudyard! (you have a 42 Gig CPU? Great Scott!) couple ideas:

Depending on your original installation, some Restore Disks/partitions allow you to safely re-install just Windows itself. It will say so as a choice on one of the steps before it actually does anything...

If you check your HD model, Seagate, WD, etc have special HD diagnostic tools (SeaMove) that came with it or you can d/l. I seem to remember you can re-partition a drive without losing data with one of them.

You might check your Fast Indexing in XP; no cut & paste should take more than a couple seconds on your machine. IS your HD NTFS?

I had a situation similar with Trend Micro; what was happening was that it was scanning the files before 'releasing' them.

Noticed you have a TV card on there; vid files can look like huge fragmented areas to the OS. Have you checked defrag 'Analyze'?

Some folks are really scared of backing up their work and then doing real housecleaning on their machine. You have a nice machine there, and you will feel much more confident if you have done some backup/restore. Just create some test files & practice a little; no need to do the whole machine. Lots of very reliable backup utilities out there- even MS makes one!:]