I've seen 100% drive utilization go on for hours on end on mechanical drives on Windows 10, disabling some services like Windows Search can help with this but in the end it doesn't change the fact that Windows 10 is a bloated pig and should not be run on a mechanical drive. Your 24 hours of issues can be solved for less than $100 and an hours worth of time.
Dell Inspiron Laptop Bogging Down
- Thread starter reubenray
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I use to build my own desktops as a home theater PC. But that has been at least 10+ years ago. Back then I had a three user pack of Windows, but I don't remember what version. To repair this one I would need to save years of files (financing, pictures, music, programs/software, etc). I would then get a new SSD to replace the HDD with and then reinstall a clean version of Windows 10. I would then have to hopefully transfer everything from the HDD to the SSD.
Windows 10 on Amazon runs about $100 with a SSD about $50 to $75. So a total of around $150 to $175 for parts. But the issue is can I do this myself. I am not as young as I use to be with bad eyesight and shaky hands. If I get a company to do the work I assume they would charge $200 or so. This now is around $400. The laptops range I am looking at are around $700.
A streaming stick may be a better solution for watching videos. They have the distinct advantage over a laptop or notebook in that they come with a simple remote control and updates usually happen in the background.
To fix the Inspiron, all you need is a 1TB SSD and a USB to SATA adapter. If there's 817GB free, it should only take a few minutes to clone the drive. No mucking about with discovering software registration numbers and reinstalling everything (the most painful part of setting up a computer). You could use a smaller SSD, but it would require additional effort to do the cloning.
The reality is that 12GB of RAM (from which the video RAM is commandeered) doesn't afford Windows the hard drive and software cache RAM needed to support a mechanical hard drive.
That Inspiron, being as new as it is, would have now problem actvating windows. The key is more than likely embedded in the BIOS and will automatically activate. On the rare chance it would not you should have a product key sticker on the laptop itself. The key is tied to the hardware, not the user.
I have picked up a couple of dozen tiny Lenovo and Dell PC's ranging from I5 6th gen to I7 8th gen. Put M.2 drives in them and used the media creation tool to make a image. Harshness is right, go to ebay or Amazon and get a $15 buck adapter. Except I would install a new copy of windows and after all updates ect. Plug the old drive into the adapter, navigate to the old drive, find your stuff you want and drag and drop it into the folders you want. Once you are sure you have everything, delete the partions and format and use it as a backup drive.
Agreed. Might as well do the clean install. Not a fan of cloning unless it's absolutely necessary. If there are underlying issues with Windows, you're just cloning those issue over. Garbage in, garbage out. And for those that like to collect software, it forces you to install only what you need.
Outside of what I do for end users at work as part of my job and for friends/family, I typically do 10 fresh installs of Windows per year. The three computers I have at home and my two work computers, after every (typically) twice a year Feature update. My three computers at home, it takes less than two hours to go from three paperweights to three fully functioning computers. I keep up to date installers of all of the software I use on my NAS, I am very anal about only having software I actually use installed and making sure everything is 100% up to date at all times. I have the serial keys for everything where needed, config files that contain settings and customizations for certain applications.
While I am not super strict about keeping data and applications and data separate, I do to a degree. My desktop and laptop have three SSDs each, one SSD is strictly for audio, video and photos that I'm tooling around with in Adobe CC, one SSD is strictly used for VMs. Don't have to worry about reloading any those files. Music is on my NAS, I have some documents local, but everything of importance is on my NAS as well.
Outside of what I do for end users at work as part of my job and for friends/family, I typically do 10 fresh installs of Windows per year. The three computers I have at home and my two work computers, after every (typically) twice a year Feature update. My three computers at home, it takes less than two hours to go from three paperweights to three fully functioning computers. I keep up to date installers of all of the software I use on my NAS, I am very anal about only having software I actually use installed and making sure everything is 100% up to date at all times. I have the serial keys for everything where needed, config files that contain settings and customizations for certain applications.
While I am not super strict about keeping data and applications and data separate, I do to a degree. My desktop and laptop have three SSDs each, one SSD is strictly for audio, video and photos that I'm tooling around with in Adobe CC, one SSD is strictly used for VMs. Don't have to worry about reloading any those files. Music is on my NAS, I have some documents local, but everything of importance is on my NAS as well.
If you run out of RAM, you get into swap hell with infinite and ultimately slow thrashing around on disk. Yes, you could thrash a lot faster on the SSD, but I would make sure your 12GB is adequate first before cloning. And I've cloned drives from one hdd to another much bigger one. Went well (except for my PITA cloning Windows software!) I could easily expand the partiition once Windows was booted to include the full disk.
Are you agreeing with me?
I'm not disagreeing.
I thought it my be useful to break down how more RAM could help.
Is this what you are referring to. If so I have it already.
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Would I use the backup in Windows to clone everything?
I am just about convinced to go the SSD route. There is no sticker on the laptop with the Windows Key.
Why would you need to buy a Windows license, your computer came licensed with Windows. At this point I have probably done 300+ installations of Windows 10 and 11, and never once have I purchased a license. For older computers, you enter the serial key on the COA, for newer computers the Windows activation is tied to the hardware.
You only are using 150 - 160 GB worth of space, if you keep everything well organized and utilize the library folders of your user profile for data, you just need to offload the My Docs/Pics/Videos/Music folders. In the past 10 years I've been through XP -> 7, 7 -> 10 and now 10 ->11 upgrades for approx 150 computers. The biggest problem with data migration is users being unorganized digital slobs. Not using library folders, using the desktop as a universal dumping ground, creating folders in the root of the C drive for personal data.
If your laptop has an M.2 slot, only one screw is needed to secure the drive. However, with 2.5" SATA you typically have 7 - 8 screws between the drive and the caddy.
If you use the back up utility built into Windows, you are creating a disk image you are not cloning the drive.
Doing it that way, you would need to create the image from the Backup and Restore Control Panel applet on an external hard drive. Then I believe use bootable media to get into the Windows Pre-boot Environment that allows you to load an image and then Windows will reimage the drive. Don't think I ever did this on 10, and it's been years since I did it on 7. The exact procedure escapes me. But Windows is picky about where the image is on the external drive. It must be in the 'WindowsImageBackup' folder on the root of the drive and you cannot have multiple images on the same drive when attempting to restore.
Cloning a drive creates a bit for bit duplicate of the drive that can be used as a hot spare. Once you clone the drive, you can pop it in to the computer and no further action is necessary. Macrium has pretty good free cloning software from what I hear, not sure if Clonezilla is still around, that's always an option if it is. I've always used either the boot disc that comes with Acronis True Image or Symantec Ghost for cloning. This is done in a pre boot environment where you select your source and destination drives, make sure you pay attention and don't mix them up resulting in a wiped drive.
Macrium Reflect Free is good choice for either cloning or making a backup image. A backup image is the safest way to go. You can restore to your new drive. If something happens you still have an image that can be restored. Cloning can result in a disaster if a mistake is made. Most drives come with a utility to transfer your data.
I still go with the fresh install and copy your docs and pictures to the new one. If you clone, You are bringing the exact problems back. mostly the registry entries. Go with a fresh clean install and copy your stuff back from the old drive. And if it has a M.2 slot definatly go that way.
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12 Gigs of ram should be good for everyday use.
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12 Gigs of ram should be good for everyday use.
Just make sure during the install you turn off all the windows snooping stuff, just say no to the two pages of it.
I am still checking into how to do this. Installing the hardware will be the easy part. I am in the process of saving my pictures, music, tax files, etc. to an 120gb SSD just in case they don't transfer.
How can I save my browser passwords without writing everything down? I can make a list of my favorites on the browsers. I would also make a list of my desktop icons that I want after I delete what I don't need.
To do a clean install I am assuming I would need to buy a new Windows 10?
What do I need to look for a compatible 1 TB SSD? This one comes with Acronis True Image HD.
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How can I check to see if my 12 gb of Ram is enough?
How can I save my browser passwords without writing everything down? I can make a list of my favorites on the browsers. I would also make a list of my desktop icons that I want after I delete what I don't need.
To do a clean install I am assuming I would need to buy a new Windows 10?
What do I need to look for a compatible 1 TB SSD? This one comes with Acronis True Image HD.
Amazon product ASIN B078211KBBView: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B078211KBB/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ssd+1tb+with+cloning+software&qid=1657960379&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A6797521011%2Cp_72%3A1248879011&rnid=1248877011&s=pc&sr=1-3
How can I check to see if my 12 gb of Ram is enough?
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If you use Chrome/Edge/Firefox and your browser is logged into a Google/Microsoft/Mozilla account, everything will sync over to the new installation. once you log back in no other action required. If you don't sign into a browser you can export your bookmarks as an html file and then import them into the new installation. This can be found under Bookmarks in Settings typically. Not sure about saved password, as I don't have any passwords saved.
No Reason to make a list of desktop icons either, what you have on your desktop is located in C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop, just copy that whole folder.
Again, not sure why you think you need to buy Windows, you don't. The computer came licensed with it, you've already paid for it as Dell past the cost down to you in the final purchase price. Download the Media Creation Tool directly from Microsoft from the link I posted earlier and create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, preferably use a flash drive as it will be much faster. Windows will automatically activate upon installation.
The Crucial SSD will definitely work. However, if your laptop has an M.2 slot that supports NVMe that would be the best way to go. A SATA SSD will be a million times better than any HDD, but if your going to do this, why not go all the way and go NVMe if you can.
For every day use, web browsing/email/word processing 12 GB should be fine. More RAM never hurts and there is no reason not to max it out. As I sit here, my desktop computer hasn't been rebooted or powered off in about a week, current memory usage is at 6.3 GB and I have two instances of MS Edge open, one with 6 open tabs, one with 13 open tabs, Outlook is open, mRemoteNG (a remote desktop manager) is opened with 3 active RDP connections to servers at work and various Symantec Endpoint and Adobe CC services are running in the background.
No Reason to make a list of desktop icons either, what you have on your desktop is located in C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop, just copy that whole folder.
Again, not sure why you think you need to buy Windows, you don't. The computer came licensed with it, you've already paid for it as Dell past the cost down to you in the final purchase price. Download the Media Creation Tool directly from Microsoft from the link I posted earlier and create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, preferably use a flash drive as it will be much faster. Windows will automatically activate upon installation.
The Crucial SSD will definitely work. However, if your laptop has an M.2 slot that supports NVMe that would be the best way to go. A SATA SSD will be a million times better than any HDD, but if your going to do this, why not go all the way and go NVMe if you can.
For every day use, web browsing/email/word processing 12 GB should be fine. More RAM never hurts and there is no reason not to max it out. As I sit here, my desktop computer hasn't been rebooted or powered off in about a week, current memory usage is at 6.3 GB and I have two instances of MS Edge open, one with 6 open tabs, one with 13 open tabs, Outlook is open, mRemoteNG (a remote desktop manager) is opened with 3 active RDP connections to servers at work and various Symantec Endpoint and Adobe CC services are running in the background.
Thanks to you and also EarDemon for telling me about this Macrium product. It appears relatively foolproof. I've been struggling with AOMEI Backupper for way too long. I've had to give up on a couple of occasions when my new/blank disk won't even show up at all! I resorted to the Linux dd command.
One wrinkle that has given me grief in the past is my upgrades from a bootable Windows 7 disk to an SSD Windows 10 disk, while leaving either disk bootable as the need arises. I think the bootloader remains on my old Windows 7 disk. How would I back these disks up for disaster recovery using the Macrium product? I think I back up the Windows 7 disk and all partitions, and then as a separate act I back up the Windows 10 disk which may or may not be partitioned. (Don't remember.)
Sorry for highjacking your thread, reubenray. I think you might as well be aware of another possibility for migration... Oh, this is a laptop? Maybe that's not an option for you.
Create a recovery USB using Macrium and then boot from the USB drive or if Macrium is installed you can create a backup task that runs on a schedule if desired. You can backup the entire disk or just the partitions. Your choice. And now back to our regular programming.
You should regularly maintain off-premise backups of these files anyway. I prefer thumb drives as they are much cheaper and are probably more durable.
How depends on which browser(s) you use. Firefox makes this very easy:
Export login data from Firefox | Firefox Help
The Firefox password management feature allows you to export saved username and password data to a file. Learn more.
support.mozilla.org
This scrambling around for keys and passwords is why I recommend cloning rather than a fresh Windows installation.
It is enough to run Windows, but less than ideal. Microsoft claims that Windows 10 or 11 only requires 4GB of RAM but that's just asinine. The fact that the graphics RAM comes out of the system RAM in this machine also figures in. I really don't think you'll need more RAM if you just go with an SSD.
I use Clonezilla to clone Windows and Linux drives as it is fast, relatively straightforward and doesn't depend on Volume Shadow Copy (the Windows facility that updates the backup with files that have changed during the typically lengthy backup process). It is fast because it boots into Linux (entirely into RAM if you want).
I've had less than stellar success with bundled cloning tools.
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