Windows Explorer became unusable

[DerFurz]

So basically I need help here. The Windows 10 explorer now is completely unusable, as it is extremely slow. As this now also affects my Microsoft suite I can't really ignore it anymore.

Details:

I don't know when it started, but it has been for quite a few weeks and updates, and it wasn't suddenly as bad as it is now. 

Open the window file explorer and it loads forever, after some time it just quickly finishes and everything mostly works as long as I don't click any of the quick access stuff. 

If I try and open the recycling bin on the desktop it doesn't for many (sometimes up to 10) minutes and then suddenly opens.

If I delete stuff it is stuck at 100% with 0 objects remaining after some time it just finished. Sometimes it just works. 

The office suite, except for teams, again doesn't open until it at some point miraculously does.

 

If I start in safe mode everything works fine, if booted in Linux every drive works fine. If the explorer finally is loaded browsing the directories is snappy, although sometimes the symbols (the ones showing if its a folder or a pic or whatever, not an actual preview) load alot slower than they should. About 10 Seconds on an SSD isnt what it was at before.

Most Programme like games work like they always have on all disks. Speed and Smart data is also fine. Any program that is open, excluding the explorer is snappy and fast. Whenever the explorer is 'working' there is no cpu or disk usage, that would explain this.

 

Do you think a fresh windows install is necessary? Or do you think I can avoid that? 

 

 

[aDoomGuy]

Lets see if we can avoid that by performing a few steps.

 

Search start menu for cmd and open it as administrator before you run the commands below. Stay connected to the internet and put them in exactly as they are laid down.

 

sfc /scannow

Let System File Checker scan your system files for corruption, if it didn't fix anything continue to the next steps but restart the PC first if it did fix anything.

 

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /ScanHealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

This will scan your Windows image for problems. If it fixed something restart the PC and see if it's better.

If you aren't able to run these commands even in an elevated prompt (run as administrator) you can try to boot Windows into safe mode and try the commands there and if that doesn't work there is something seriously wrong with your OS install and you need to try repair it with installation media or reinstall it. If this doesn't help, you can try to reinstall drivers and removing what you can with DDU or repair Windows with installation media.

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

8 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Lets see if we can avoid that by performing a few steps.

 

Search start menu for cmd and open it as administrator before you run the commands below. Stay connected to the internet and put them in exactly as they are laid down.

 

sfc /scannow

Let System File Checker scan your system files for corruption, if it didn't fix anything continue to the next steps but restart the PC first if it did fix anything.

 

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /ScanHealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

This will scan your Windows image for problems. If it fixed something restart the PC and see if it's better.

If you aren't able to run these commands even in an elevated prompt (run as administrator) you can try to boot Windows into safe mode and try the commands there and if that doesn't work there is something seriously wrong with your OS install and you need to try repair it with installation media or reinstall it. If this doesn't help, you can try to reinstall drivers and removing what you can with DDU or repair Windows with installation media.

 

 

shouldn't they also do a disk check...? Right click on drive > properties > tools > check drive for errors 

Because that sounds very much like dying hard drive to me. 

 

 

[aDoomGuy]

6 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

shouldn't they also do a disk check...? Right click on drive > properties > tools > check drive for errors 

Because that sounds very much like dying hard drive to me. 

 

 

Yeah.... I wanted to ask him to do that but.. there was this ...allthough the thread says it has now been fixed. Still though..

 

[Update: Bug existed in Insider Builds since August] Chkdsk is supposedly corrupting SSDs on Windows 10 - Tech News - Linus Tech Tips

 

Well tell you what. @DerFurz If you want, have a look in that thread. Apparently the issue have been resolved so I'll leave this step up to you.

 

Preferably before you do any of the steps above in my earlier post, open cmd as I described and run this command first.

 

chkdsk c: /r /f

Restart the PC and let it check your OS drive during boot up and proceed with the other steps. You can also get SMART data out of it and have somebody who know what it means have a look on it with some app like this:

 HDDScan - FREE HDD and SSD Test Diagnostics Software with RAID and USB Flash support

[Mark Kaine]

36 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Yeah.... I wanted to ask him to do that but..

Right, I forgot about that... seems to be fixed though. I did that recently (the right click on drive method cuz I'm lazy) and no issues, but that was on 1809 so I wouldn't know first hand either... 

 

Also I'm pretty sure a bad drive can slow a system down even if it's not the OS drive, so I would check all drives, if applicable. 

 

I had that... two at once... I tried everything, nothing helped... 

 

I did actually manage to fix the Kingston ssd eventually, it's working fine now, maybe at half speed that's advertised but that's still faster than mechanical drive and it's not giving me any issues (fix was, upgrade fw, *power cycle twice* actually recommended from Kingston website lol) the barracuda however, hopeless case... I use it as external, it works, but it still slows my system down occasionally (freezing explorer and all...) , even as external... (it's not connected permanently obviously) 

 

[DerFurz]

Thank you for helping me so far. The above mentioned ideas did not help, there were no issues found. I found out another thing about the problem: sometimes it just isnt there and then it is. Worked fine both yesterday and today and just now the some folders started loading too slow, on different drives, and now the explorer doesnt load at all, yet the programms that tended to not work before work now and others dont, like the command prompt, but only if I try and open as administrator.

And although the Explorer is a loading loop showing nothing, if I open a folder on the desktop, it opens immediatly but without symbols.
I have a total of 4 drives in my system, on of them I think could be failing, old (many spin ups and hours) but if I try to run a game installed on it via Steam it works perfectly. There also are no shortcuts to it that could send the system into a loop if the file isnt found, and while the Explorer is in a state of barly working the drive also works fine, response times and transfer rates are fine..

The other 3 are relativly new, two SSDs and one HDD that doenst do any weird noises, SMART data on all of them is excelent and they too work flawlessly if the explorer is in limp-home-mode. Restarting the System doesnt seem to help, although ill try again as currently there isnt alot else I can try as it is basically unusable again. If that doesnt help i will try and disconnect that drive and see if it the system works.