Computer booting extremely slow: cant find the cause.

[LmZ]

My computer takes about 8-10 minutes from turning the computer on to allowing me to carry out tasks. If I click anything before this time, it will take an obscenely long time to carry out the task or even just fail the task.

I have tried uninstalling all software that I don't use, cleared unnecessary files, carried out disc cleanup. I regained about 140 GB of space.

I removed almost all start up applications apart from my anti virus.

I carried out a hard disk test which didn't show any errors. However I have about 7 bad block errors in event viewer every time I start up, is my hard drive at fault for the long boot times?

When I see the desktop screen, my network icon tries to locate a network and nothing else will happen until it finds the network. Can this be a cause? I have enough RAM, though I haven't carried out a memtest.

Could this be a hardware issue?

Edit: I use windows 7, my computer including my hard drive is about 6 years old and its 450 GB, 160 GB is available.

 

[Rapajez]

How big is your hard drive, and how old? What version of Windows do you use?

Perform a backup (if possible), at least of your most important files, then try a "Disk Repair". Open My Computer, right-click the drive in question, and select Properties. Click the Tools tab and then under Error-checking select "Check now". Ensure both boxes are checked and click "Start". You may be prompted to reboot, and it may take an hour or two to run. If the hard drive is very corrupted, you may loose data, which is why you should do a backup first.

From that same Tools tab, you can also attempt a Defrag, but Windows 7 and up should do that automatically for you.

Try a utility like CCleaner or Slim Cleaner (make sure you watch the installers so you don't end up with "toolbars" or other unwanted software.) Go to the start-up managers in those tools, and ensure there's no unwanted programs there.

If your drive is older, consider researching an SSD. It will drastically improve all of these issues, and has many other benefits to boot.