Computer start up is taking longer and longer. Could anyone answer a few questions?

[Philosophia]

So I built my first computer a couple months ago and I noticed it started taking longer to start up. Not by very much. I'm just curious why that is. Is it because of programs I have downloaded and are initializing on the start up or is it something else? I would assume over time it will just get worse and worse. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? Thanks for you time.

 

[USAFRet]

Check what is in your startup, and be mindful of what you install.

 

[Entomber]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/windows-bit-rot-fact-or-fiction/3325

It's normal, and largely inevitable. Regular system maintenance will at least minimize your boot time degradation.

 

[Philosophia]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/windows-bit-rot-fact-or-fiction/3325

It's normal, and largely inevitable. Regular system maintenance will at least minimize your boot time degradation.

What type of maintenance? The ones referred to in the article you linked or is there anything else that I can do?

 

[liberty610]

I have an Intel SSD for my boot drive, so I don't have to long of wait times on this machine. But I have done work on many others with standard hard drives that start to take forever.

I use a couple of main pieces of software to keep maintenance on my machines.

I use CCleaner to clean out all my browser gunk and keep the registry clean. I use Windows disk cleanup every few months - especially after windows updates. I use Windows Defender and scan once a week, and I also use the free version of male ware bytes and do a scan every couple weeks.

I would also recommend a defrag every month or so. Or at least scan the drive to see if it is needed. But ONLY if it is a standard HDD. If you are using an SSD drive, defrag of course is a no no.

Also, like stated above, be mindful of what sites you go to. A lot of times, machines can get slow when using website for things like torrents and what not.

 

[Entomber]

New SSDs are not as susceptible to wear damage over time, according to manufacturers, especially if they're higher quality SSDs. According to some tests, you won't start seeing uncorrectable errors in an SSD until after 100TB or more has been written onto it.

Personally, I had some serious crashing problems with games that I had on my SSD and after I defragmented both the SSD and free space on the SSD I no longer had these problems, and my boot time dramatically increased.

However, the storage experts say that defragmentation on an SSD should theoretically not really affect its performance. My personal opinion would be that a defrag of your SSD is okay if you have a good reason to, but you shouldn't regularly defragment it.

 

[liberty610]

The SSD I have from Intel came with a toolbox app that does the trim control and what not. I just use that. I have not had any issues with it thus far (knock on wood). But I also have never had any issues with standard drives as boot drives, as long as I use the programs and steps I listed above on a regular basis. Friends and family who know less about computers on the other hand.... ugh.... their machines can turn into a total wreck and get extremely slow.

 

[Philosophia]

New SSDs are not as susceptible to wear damage over time, according to manufacturers, especially if they're higher quality SSDs. According to some tests, you won't start seeing uncorrectable errors in an SSD until after 100TB or more has been written onto it.

Personally, I had some serious crashing problems with games that I had on my SSD and after I defragmented both the SSD and free space on the SSD I no longer had these problems, and my boot time dramatically increased.

However, the storage experts say that defragmentation on an SSD should theoretically not really affect its performance. My personal opinion would be that a defrag of your SSD is okay if you have a good reason to, but you shouldn't regularly defragment it.

Why is it bad to defrag your ssd?

 

[Entomber]

Defragmentation basically rewrites your whole drive, and an SSD has a limited amount of data that can be written to it before it begins to fail.

 

[Philosophia]

I have an Intel SSD for my boot drive, so I don't have to long of wait times on this machine. But I have done work on many others with standard hard drives that start to take forever.

I use a couple of main pieces of software to keep maintenance on my machines.

I use CCleaner to clean out all my browser gunk and keep the registry clean. I use Windows disk cleanup every few months - especially after windows updates. I use Windows Defender and scan once a week, and I also use the free version of male ware bytes and do a scan every couple weeks.

I would also recommend a defrag every month or so. Or at least scan the drive to see if it is needed. But ONLY if it is a standard HDD. If you are using an SSD drive, defrag of course is a no no.

Also, like stated above, be mindful of what sites you go to. A lot of times, machines can get slow when using website for things like torrents and what not.

I have a Samsung evo 250g. So I should download the programs that you mentioned? What exactly do ccleaner and windows disk clean up do?

 

[Entomber]

CCleaner is a free software that allows you to delete excess registry entries from your computer, which allows your OS to access files faster and more efficiently. It also can delete temporary files or things like browser histories that may get really bloated over time.

Disk Cleanup shows you which files or programs haven't been used for a long time, allowing you to delete them, and it should come standard with Windows 7.