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
    2014-01-13T06:14:31+00:00

    Okay slow delete operations indicate indexed resources and thus answers my question 'is there something else going on?' with a yes, there is the clean up of the indices going on here.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-13T01:24:53+00:00

    The simplest way to delete stubborn large files is to boot into safe mode, browse to the containing folder, open a command prompt as admin from the folder and type

    del filename

    where filename is the full name of the file to be deleted.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-13T08:33:09+00:00

    Actually you don't have to boot into safe mode.

    Go to the folder in explorer, put your mouse on an empty space in the file pane, shift-rt click and select the option "Open a command window here".  

    This puts you straight into the directory.  Then do 'del filename' as Keith says.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-13T20:17:50+00:00

    Yeah.  I'm not rebooting into safe mode every time I need to delete a large file.

    I have not had this problem in a long time.  I think maybe one of the windows updates has fixed the issue somewhere along the line.

    And I have never had the problem on PCs with Windows 8+.

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