Just installed Windows XP SP 2. Now file access is slow as a snail!

[novice]

Hi

I've just recently purchased a new notebook running Windows XP Pro. On the system tray this morning, I was prompted to install the XP SP 2 which I did by clicking on the icon. Rebooted the machine after installation and noticed that it now takes a long time for all files in a directory to appear on Windows explorer after clicking on the directory name. Just wondering if there's anything else I should do for it to run as normal. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Switch the Indexing service off. Click on Start/Run and type services.msc and hit OK.
Scroll down to find Indexing, doubleclick it, stop it and set it to 'disabled'.
Reboot and it should work faster again.

 

[novice]

Hi

Did that but noticed that on some directories, it still took some time for the directory contents to appear. Excuse my ignorance, but would removing SP2 revert the performance of the indexing to what it was before? Thanks.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Fill in your PC specs under 'User Profile', that might give us an idea where the struggle comes from.
Not enough HD space, low on memory, having Norton/Symantec bloatware on the PC...

One of my partitions has XP-Pro/SP2 and I have to admit, it is faster than my W2K at the moment. But then my W2K install is nearly 4 years old and has tons of programs installed.
I've never had a crash on W2K yet! So I'm very carefully feeling my way into XP.

On a reasonable spec PC, XP should run fine, with or without SP2.
Do a chkdsk /f first, and then a full defrag.
Your PC will thank you.

 

[Nodsu]

You should check the version of your antivirus program. If the AV is pre-SP2 then it may not work well.

Also, a simple defrag may give you a significant boost in speed. Turn off the system pagefile, reboot, run defragmenter, turn pagefile back on and restart.

 

[novice]

In terms of diskspace, I have used 8.5 Gb with 47 Gb to spare. 512 RAM.
Dell Latitude D610 model notebook.

I decided to uninstall the SP2 but the file access problem remains :-(

How do I turn off the system pagefile before running defragmenter?

As it's a fairly new notebook, the sooner I get to the bottom of this the better!

Thanks!

 

[novice]

Hi

In regards to the directory access performance problem I've been experiencing, I've just noticed that it only occurs when I'm connected to the internet (via dial-up). The speed of directory access is unaffected when the notebook is 'standalone'. Any further advice much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Check that you have Printer and Filesharing DISabled under Network Properties!

 

[novice]

How do I disable Printer and File sharing under Network properties? If I am connected to a LAN or need to print, do I need to enable it again? Thanks.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Your mentioning dial-up in a previous post made me assume you are not on a network.
If you are, then don't touch the settings.
You seem to have found the problem (slow Explorer during Dial-Up), so enjoy while the going is good.

 

[novice]

OK, let me clarify! I used a combination of dial up and LAN access depending on whether I am at a client's site or in my office respectively. Not sure if the problem also occurs over LAN since I've not been in my office of late but it definitely exist when I'm on dial up. Thanks.