03-02-2015, 10:55 AM
This feels more like a CPU usage issue rather than a file system problem. Have you tried using System Monitor to observe the CPU usage yet? (See my last paragraph in #5)
It occurs to me that everyone is assuming this netbook has a mechanical HDD, and that's probably correct, but does it have a solid-state drive? If so, defragging is basically unnecessary. In fact, Windows 7 should disable defrag for solid-state discs.
In general, defragging a mechanical HDD will speed up the boot-up speed of the machine and reduce the opening time of programs by reducing the number of "seeks" needed to open files. Opinions vary, but essentially, whether a disc needs defragging depends on how fragmented the drive actually is, not on the calender!
How quickly a disc becomes fragmented depends on how you use it; naturally, a system disc will become fragmented more quickly than a disc containing an archive of data files. Personally, I defragment my system drives every 2 or 3 months, and my "Archive" partitions might only get defragged every year or so. After doing so, there's no real change to the way the computer performs, which indicates that I don't need to do it more frequently. Every few days seems rather extreme, but perhaps if you have particularly slow drives and you use the computer extremely intensively then it might feel like it's worth doing. Additionally, discs with plenty of free space (like yours) tend to stay reasonably unfragmented for longer. When you run the disc defragmenter tool, it tells you how fragmented the disc is, and whether it needs to be done...
Who remembers the 1990s when Microsoft used to state that drefagging was unnecessary with the NTFS file system
But anyway, we've eliminated "sudden gross fragmentation" from the list of suspects. No harm in eliminating the easy ones first...
Here we have a lack of basic responsiveness to mouse clicks. Is this lack of responsiveness accompanied by frantic "thrashing" of the hard drive? I'm guessing you would have reported that if that was the case? For avoidance of doubt, have a look - if it's a mechanically quiet HDD, then have a look at the activity LED...
If the HDD is relatively inactive during these moments of unresponsiveness, then that moves the focus away from the file system (and/or a lack of RAM), and towards the software. Which is why I suggested monitoring the CPU usage.
As I said, it could be caused by a rogue Microsoft update - in which case doing a Google for the type and model number might return information about the problem from other users. I suggested that earlier - have you tried? I've fixed many obscure problems that way - if someone else has already found the cure, why re-invent the wheel?
Also, it could be caused by a hardware fault, I'm afraid to say. But before we get there, we need more information. So, tell us about the CPU activity, and the HDD activity.
Mark
It occurs to me that everyone is assuming this netbook has a mechanical HDD, and that's probably correct, but does it have a solid-state drive? If so, defragging is basically unnecessary. In fact, Windows 7 should disable defrag for solid-state discs.
In general, defragging a mechanical HDD will speed up the boot-up speed of the machine and reduce the opening time of programs by reducing the number of "seeks" needed to open files. Opinions vary, but essentially, whether a disc needs defragging depends on how fragmented the drive actually is, not on the calender!
How quickly a disc becomes fragmented depends on how you use it; naturally, a system disc will become fragmented more quickly than a disc containing an archive of data files. Personally, I defragment my system drives every 2 or 3 months, and my "Archive" partitions might only get defragged every year or so. After doing so, there's no real change to the way the computer performs, which indicates that I don't need to do it more frequently. Every few days seems rather extreme, but perhaps if you have particularly slow drives and you use the computer extremely intensively then it might feel like it's worth doing. Additionally, discs with plenty of free space (like yours) tend to stay reasonably unfragmented for longer. When you run the disc defragmenter tool, it tells you how fragmented the disc is, and whether it needs to be done...
Who remembers the 1990s when Microsoft used to state that drefagging was unnecessary with the NTFS file system
But anyway, we've eliminated "sudden gross fragmentation" from the list of suspects. No harm in eliminating the easy ones first...
Here we have a lack of basic responsiveness to mouse clicks. Is this lack of responsiveness accompanied by frantic "thrashing" of the hard drive? I'm guessing you would have reported that if that was the case? For avoidance of doubt, have a look - if it's a mechanically quiet HDD, then have a look at the activity LED...
If the HDD is relatively inactive during these moments of unresponsiveness, then that moves the focus away from the file system (and/or a lack of RAM), and towards the software. Which is why I suggested monitoring the CPU usage.
As I said, it could be caused by a rogue Microsoft update - in which case doing a Google for the type and model number might return information about the problem from other users. I suggested that earlier - have you tried? I've fixed many obscure problems that way - if someone else has already found the cure, why re-invent the wheel?
Also, it could be caused by a hardware fault, I'm afraid to say. But before we get there, we need more information. So, tell us about the CPU activity, and the HDD activity.
Mark
