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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

76 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2011-07-08T21:04:05+00:00

    my solution: Kill explorer.exe and delete the unwanted big file with a third party filemanager. It takes only the time to kill the process explorer.exe.

    After this, restart the process.

    I admit, it's a work around, but it does the job.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-16T13:59:37+00:00

    Problem still exists.  I will try the admin command prompt in a bit but the current delete won't even cancel and stops reboot as well.  I assume if I force reboot I will have a corrupt drive when I try to login again.

    I'm trying to delete two 18 GB zip files.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-09-16T18:00:34+00:00

    I ended up having to force reboot, do a disk repair, boot to safe mode, delete the files via command prompt.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-10-19T09:18:34+00:00

    I am running Windows 7 x64 with an AMD Phenom II 3.3Ghz 6 core.

    Everything on this machine works wonderful and blisteringly fast, except copying large files.

    When trying to copy a large file 1GB (Access MDB file) to a networked drive, it says that I should wait 19 HOURS.

    It never finishes and eventually bombs out. Even if I click Cancel, it refuses to cancel. The only way to get the copying to stop is to do a shutdown and reboot. I have tried using xcopy /J from a CMD prompt, but that also does not work. It has been running now for about one hour and not a response.

    Strangely, when I copy this file FROM the mapped drive TO my PC it copies in seconds. But it refuses to copy back to the network drive at the same speed. So far I had to keep using my flash drive and manually copy the file back to the networked PC each time.

    I have tried:

    netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled (from eleveated CMD prompt) - No luck.

    xcopy /J - No luck

    Found this link and now going to try that:

    http://www.freenerd.net/index.php?title=Windows\_7\_slow\_file\_copy\_fix

    If you have any other suggestions, please let me know, thanks!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2011-11-28T21:52:49+00:00

    Delete large folders and files from the command-line interface.  Pretty well instant.

    Takes no time to get there - marginally slower than the GUI, but not much.

    /Start - type 'cmd'

    Command-line interface comes up.

    Navigate to the folder ["cd <folder path>"]

    type "del *.*"

    All gone.

    I don't know what W7 is doing - clearly it looks at every file and thinks about it.  Not much point I'd have thought, since the files are going to be deleted anyway.  Like sorting through the trash before putting it on the street.

    This has been going on so long, and is such a nuisance, that you'd have thought Microsoft could have fixed it by now.  Must be awfully complicated.

    Anyway, I routinely delete folders with >10G files no problem.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments