Windows 7, Deleting Large files is extremely slow. (Not going to recycle bin, permanent delete)

Anonymous
2009-12-13T14:37:28+00:00

It is taking a huge amount of time to delete files.

The files are not going to recycle bin (I am hold shift while hitting the Delete key)

Also I have even tried shutting off the recycle bin

I have timed a few of these

Single file delete, 2.6 gb, 2 minutes 14 seconds

Single file delete, 1.9 gb, 1 minutes 44 seconds

Single file delete, 230 mb, 0 minutes 24 seconds

Most of the time the dialog window that pops up says "Calculating..."

Judging by the times, This has something to do with file size.

I get similar time when I delete from the command prompt.

Windows XP would do permanent deletes and moves (on the same drive) in a split second, especially since we are talking about one file.

I work with large image files regularly. I can't wait 2 plus minutes every time I delete one of these files when I may have to move or delete a few hundred at a time.

I am getting very frustrated with Windows 7.

So far...

I have disabled Remote Differential Compression (RDC)

I have disabled TCP AutoTuning and Receive Side Scaling

                netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled (AND)

                netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled  (And rebooted)

There are no removable drives, USB devices, or other attached devices other that the keyboard and mouse.

I have disabled

Windows Search and Indexing

I am viewing "Details" only in windows explorer (No Thumbnails)

I have shut off IPv6 support (I read about it somewhere but I believe it was to do with network operations, but I tried it anyway)

Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface is disabled

All Drivers are up to date.

I have completely wiped the drive and reloaded the OS.

This is on a 1tb storage drive, no RAID, 3gb SATA drive (Seagate 7200.12)

Windows 7 64bit (Windows experience is listed as 6.1)

Intel i5 processor with 4gig memory

Fresh install, fast hard drive (OS).

Avast AV

Not much else running

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-15T07:27:45+00:00

    windows 7 is hopelessly slow deleting/copying files, i have a very simple system. 1 hard drive no network attached , 1 user (me),

    plenty of memory etc etc. its pathetic.

    it is nothing to do with 3rd party software, viruses, drivers that they are trying to blame.

    also what about the Search, how useless, crippled and confusing is that?

    the only solution is use robocopy form the command line

    or reboot to windows xp (which you have on a separate partition just in case right?

    and do it from there.

    and for searching use powerdesk file finder, it works exactly as expected. no indexing required.

    an OS should be able to deal with files. thats mainly what its for. im angry and disappointed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-07T12:29:40+00:00

    Add me to the list.....

    I also have the problem of copy, move, delete being slow beyond belief. My system is a new tosiba laptop with windows 7 pro 64 bit, with an intel i7 processor (would never know it, my other 5 year old laptop running all the same apps and more in 32 bit is way faster, imagine my dissapointment there) anyway. I have tried all of the solutions in this thread and none have helped. I even tried to boot to command prompt and delete using the dos delete command.. all kinds of tweaks and fix's and nothing.... It took 22 hours to delete about 265 gig off of a 400 gig esata hard drive with nothing else on it...... It would have been faster to reformat or so I assume... . Again anyway I don't want too lay blame anywhere but I am glad (but not happy) that there seems to be alot of other people having the same problem.....

    Hopfully if everyone who has the problem complains the Microsoft Gods will smile upon us with an admission and fix......?????

    Please if anyone finds a solution that even helps a liitle ........ POST IT.........????

    All I wanted is to add that after being windws7 for a while I have noticed it is very reliant on third party applications to run usefully! The delete is not the only function lacking!

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-08-14T12:43:07+00:00

    Came to this forum looking for a fix on this issue and it seems the problem has been here since release. File transfer and delete is worse on a usb drive. I'm working from a clean install of windows 7 too. Luckily I dual boot with fedora, so I save the major file deleting and copying for that os. I just find it a hassle to to boot into another os to do a simple operation...

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  5. Anonymous
    2010-03-25T18:16:57+00:00

    Even i have a similar problem

    when i am creating any file or folder it takes too loong..........and even after creating a file if i have to rename it

    i have to again wait too long. Its really frustrating.

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