System = 100% Disk use, I can't delete Windows.old etc.

acer3

New Member
Messages
9
I upgraded (not clean install) my laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and now I have three problems. The first is that I can't delete the Windows.old folder. The second is that Disk use is 100% for an hour or so after startup and random spikes causing everything to respond slowly or stop responding. And last is that there are duplicate processes in task manager.

1. Can't delete Windows.old
I was trying to fix the performance issues, so I decided to do a disk clean up (with system files and everything checked) and had the drive defragmented. It made booting to the OS and shutting down much faster, but my second problem still persists.

I decided to uninstall unrelated programs, and tried disk cleanup again. This time though, I got stuck in Previous Windows Installation. It's weird since it was only about 16 Mb. I cancelled it since the progress bar showed no progress after 30 minutes or so. I Tried Step Two from this tutorial on deleting Windows.old, but I just got "The request could not be performed because of an IO device error" and something like insufficient rights errors. Also, every time something tries to access the Windows.old folder or any of its files, the disk usage spikes to 100% (with mostly the System process) and everything I do slows down and stops responding (same in safe mode boot). Is this a problem on my hard drive? What can I do to fix this?

2. 100% Disk use by System
I noticed that at startup the disk usage is 100%, I checked and I saw that it was the System process. I'm not sure, but I think this causes the slow response and no response from my laptop. I tried restarting in safe mode. It was still a bit slow (but much faster) and the random lags are still there (but tolerable) but I chan't check if it was still the disk use problem since the disk is not part of task manager in safe mode. Why is the system process eating up disk use? Is there a way to fix this?

3. Duplicate processes
I checked the details and there were duplicate processes. I saw 3 dllhost process 1 by the system and one by my user account, 7 from a vaio tool, all were from my user account (there was only 1 before the upgrade), and other duplicates. Why are there duplicates? Do I have to reinstall all the drivers and programs to fix this?

Sorry for the long explanations, I hope someone could help. Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony VAIO
You try shutting down the excess processes with Task Manager? Something is starting dupe processes. Did you migrate your Local account into your Skydrive account? You can do that under "PC Settings" (Pic Below) Try that, see if it consolidates the processes. Sounds like it is acting like there are more than one users logged in at once.

skydrive.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
You try shutting down the excess processes with Task Manager? Something is starting dupe processes. Did you migrate your Local account into your Skydrive account? You can do that under "PC Settings" (Pic Below) Try that, see if it consolidates the processes. Sounds like it is acting like there are more than one users logged in at once.

View attachment 21953

Thanks, I did try to end the duplicate processes but nothing significant happened. I guess the duplicate processess aren't really affecting the performance that much, but I'm still curious why this happens. I want to get rid of it before it does something significant.

I just have 1 account, I don't have a skydrive account connected to my system. The duplicate processes are either owned by my Admin account (this is the only account I have on my laptop) or by the system.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony VAIO
Do it, make a Skydrive account and merge your local account into it, It's how Windows 8 was designed to work.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Do it, make a Skydrive account and merge your local account into it, It's how Windows 8 was designed to work.

Hello Jon,

Just for a FYI, it's called a "Microsoft account" instead of "SkyDrive account". They are two different things. :)


http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4840-microsoft-account-switch-windows-8-a.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/24878-skydrive-store-app-sign-sign-out-windows-8-a.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/24733-skydrive-desktop-app-install-uninstall-windows.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
I upgraded (not clean install) my laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and now I have three problems. The first is that I can't delete the Windows.old folder. The second is that Disk use is 100% for an hour or so after startup and random spikes causing everything to respond slowly or stop responding. And last is that there are duplicate processes in task manager.

1. Can't delete Windows.old
I was trying to fix the performance issues, so I decided to do a disk clean up (with system files and everything checked) and had the drive defragmented. It made booting to the OS and shutting down much faster, but my second problem still persists.

I decided to uninstall unrelated programs, and tried disk cleanup again. This time though, I got stuck in Previous Windows Installation. It's weird since it was only about 16 Mb. I cancelled it since the progress bar showed no progress after 30 minutes or so. I Tried Step Two from this tutorial on deleting Windows.old, but I just got "The request could not be performed because of an IO device error" and something like insufficient rights errors. Also, every time something tries to access the Windows.old folder or any of its files, the disk usage spikes to 100% (with mostly the System process) and everything I do slows down and stops responding (same in safe mode boot). Is this a problem on my hard drive? What can I do to fix this?

2. 100% Disk use by System
I noticed that at startup the disk usage is 100%, I checked and I saw that it was the System process. I'm not sure, but I think this causes the slow response and no response from my laptop. I tried restarting in safe mode. It was still a bit slow (but much faster) and the random lags are still there (but tolerable) but I chan't check if it was still the disk use problem since the disk is not part of task manager in safe mode. Why is the system process eating up disk use? Is there a way to fix this?

3. Duplicate processes
I checked the details and there were duplicate processes. I saw 3 dllhost process 1 by the system and one by my user account, 7 from a vaio tool, all were from my user account (there was only 1 before the upgrade), and other duplicates. Why are there duplicates? Do I have to reinstall all the drivers and programs to fix this?

Sorry for the long explanations, I hope someone could help. Thanks!


do as they say.... it'd help a lot... and the problems... i think refreshing your PC with your win8 installation disc would help a lot :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro with WMC x86 & windows Blue preview x86 with Windows 7 Ultimate SP1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    custom-build PC
    Motherboard
    INTEL DH55PJ MOTHERBOARD
    Browser
    google chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Pure 3.0
How is running under a Windows account as opposed to a local account going to fix this problem. Seems to me it would make it worse if anything.

An easy way to get rid of Windows.old is to boot a Linux Live CD or flash drive and delete it from there. Linux Mint Mate is a very Windows like Linux OS that runs great from a flash drive. Good tutorial for using it here: Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS - Windows 7 Help Forums

Forget the save files part, just use it to navigate to the Windows 8 boot drive and delete the Windows.old directory tree.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro with WMC x86 & windows Blue preview x86 with Windows 7 Ultimate SP1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    custom-build PC
    Motherboard
    INTEL DH55PJ MOTHERBOARD
    Browser
    google chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Pure 3.0
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