Slow file deletion

[Guest Anthony R. Gold]

I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type

of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached drives.

 

* I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Tony

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

 

"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote in message

news:mid274dd90hk07ftjqdhlr66utuj7off11@4ax.com...

> I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

> memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

> mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

> mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

> nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same

> type

> of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

> same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

> deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached

> drives.

>

> * I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

> Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

>

> Anyone got any ideas?

>

> Tony

 

You need to determine the cause by the usual process of elimination:

Launch msconfig.exe, then disable all tasks under the Startup tab.

Disconnect your machine from the Internet while the virus scanner is

disabled. You can now reactivat the disabled tasks in pairs until you

have found the culprit.

 

Use this command from the Command Prompt to create a 10 GByte

test file quickly:

fsutil.exe file createnew d:\big.bin 10000000000

[Guest Philip Herlihy]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

Anthony R. Gold wrote:

> I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

> memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

> mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

> mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

> nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type

> of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

> same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

> deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached drives.

>

> * I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

> Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

>

> Anyone got any ideas?

>

> Tony

 

Not running a search facility (eg Google desktop) are you?

 

Phil, London

[Guest Anthony R. Gold]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:14:57 +0100, Philip Herlihy

<thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:

> Anthony R. Gold wrote:

>> I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

>> memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

>> mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

>> mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

>> nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type

>> of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

>> same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

>> deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached drives.

>>

>> * I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

>> Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

>>

>> Anyone got any ideas?

>>

>> Tony

>

> Not running a search facility (eg Google desktop) are you?

 

No, indeed not even XP's Indexing Service.

 

Tony

[Guest jasee]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

Anthony R. Gold wrote:

> On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:14:57 +0100, Philip Herlihy

> <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:

>

>> Anthony R. Gold wrote:

>>> I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit

>>> more memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one

>>> behaviour is mystifying me - deleting very large files is very

>>> slow. By very large I mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15

>>> minutes. No error messages, nothing locked AFAICT, just

>>> mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type of deletion is

>>> instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the same

>>> behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

>>> deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached

>>> drives.

>>>

>>> * I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ

>>> DriveImage or Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make

>>> space for newer ones.

>>>

>>> Anyone got any ideas?

>>>

>>

>> Not running a search facility (eg Google desktop) are you?

>

> No, indeed not even XP's Indexing Service.

 

I would have thought framentation might be a peoblem as it sounds as though

the drives/partitions are pretty full. Byt it's quick in safe mode you say.

Any error messages in Event log? Saying for instance that the drive

controller wasn't responding quickly enough?

What make? Dells for instance are preloaded with so much software.

[Guest Invalid]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

In message <mid274dd90hk07ftjqdhlr66utuj7off11@4ax.com>, Anthony R. Gold

<not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> writes

>I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

>memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

>mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

>mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

>nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type

>of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

>same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

>deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached drives.

>

>* I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

>Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

>

>Anyone got any ideas?

>

>Tony

Is it similarly slow moving them?

 

Could be your virus checker being over enthusiastic and scanning the

file. Depending on how XP does a deletion, it could be scanning

multiple times.

 

Can you tell it to ignore files with whatever extension Ghost uses for

its archives?

 

 

--

Peter R Cook

[Guest Anthony R. Gold]

Re: Slow file deletion

 

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 10:39:07 +0100, Invalid <news@wisty.plus.com.invalid>

wrote:

> In message <mid274dd90hk07ftjqdhlr66utuj7off11@4ax.com>, Anthony R. Gold

> <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> writes

>> I've just started with a new laptop - much like others except a bit more

>> memory (2GB) and faster HDD (7.2k SATA) under XP and one behaviour is

>> mystifying me - deleting very large files is very slow. By very large I

>> mean over 10GB(*) and by slow I mean over 15 minutes. No error messages,

>> nothing locked AFAICT, just mysteriously very very slow. BTW the same type

>> of deletion is instantaneous when done in safe mode. And also I get the

>> same behaviours (fast under safe mode and slow under normal XP) whether

>> deleting large files from the local SATA drive or from USB attached drives.

>>

>> * I need to do this as I make successive backups using PQ DriveImage or

>> Ghost 10 and old archives need to be removed to make space for newer ones.

>>

>> Anyone got any ideas?

>>

>> Tony

> Is it similarly slow moving them?

 

As I just want rid of old archives I've never tried that. And anyway I'm

not sure what it would prove.

> Could be your virus checker being over enthusiastic and scanning the

> file. Depending on how XP does a deletion, it could be scanning

> multiple times.

 

Closing down Norton makes no different.

 

Deleting using cmd.exe and the del command is equally slow.

 

No other processes are showing any activity during the deletions.

> Can you tell it to ignore files with whatever extension Ghost uses for

> its archives?

 

Renaming the files from .v2i used by DriveImage and Ghost 10 to something

different does not speed their deletion.

 

Tony