Need help with a clean install because Windows 10 is soooooo slow

[morlaine]

I'm using a Toshiba laptop, 64-bit, with 8gb RAM. I upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. I bought the laptop used and it had Windows 8 on it, and pretty much nothing else, no applications of any kind. I did all the updates to Windows 8 using Windows Update, then upgraded to 8.1. Since I had not installed any apps I thought it was a good time to go to Windows 10 which I did. I only went to Windows 10 because Windows 7 isn't going to be supported much longer and Windows 10 was free.

Both my PCs are Toshiba laptops, 64-bit, with 8gb RAM. But the Windows 7 laptop has a 500gb drive that is FULL. The Windows 10 laptop has 1tb that was basically empty except for the operating system. They are sitting side by side using the same wireless internet router. I have loaded some applications on the Windows 10 now in hopes of being able to use the new laptop, someday soon. I have now copied over about 200gb of data to free up space on the Windows 7 PC, but I would like the slowness issue solved before I transition over to actually using the Windows 10 PC.

Let me give you a comparison of speeds between my laptops. I frequently have the need to open about 20 (sometimes more) webpages at one time.
On the Windows 7 I click to open them all, go get me a cup of coffee, feed my 3 cats, and when I get back, the screens are almost always waiting for me.
On the Windows 10, I click to open them all, go make coffee, go to the bathroom, feed my 3 cats, go outside and feed my 4 dogs, pour myself a cup of coffee, and when I get back, maybe half the screens are waiting for me.

What's up with that? I've been fighting this slowness since I got the laptop in November. It's getting on my last nerve. I've done quite a bit of reading on the internet and tried everything I think I'm techie enough to do and nothing has improved. Basically, I'm still using my Windows 7 machine.

I was reading this morning about doing a clean install of Windows 10 to solve slowness problems. I've run out of other ideas so I guess that will be my next step.

1. Are there step by step instructions somewhere that would tell me how to do this? If so, where? I absolutely do NOT want to reformat my C drive.

2. AND, more importantly, will I lose data if I do this Clean Install? Windows 10 doesn't want to recognize the Windows 7 machine on my home network which made copying my data over a whole other nightmare. So I certainly don't want to lose any of the data on the Windows 10.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Trouble]

I was reading this morning about doing a clean install of Windows 10 to solve slowness problems.

No guarantees but, certainly worth trying. Personally I always prefer a custom clean install of an OS to an upgrade, although

will I lose data if I do this Clean Install?

Yes a custom clean install will clear all user data as well as all previously installed programs.
I strongly recommend that you backup all your critical data to an external resource such as a USB connected hard disk, and......
Create a disk image also and then mount the image to confirm and verify its' contents to be sure that you have the ability to recover from any problems that might arise.
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/please-for-your-own-peace-of-mind.794/
Additionally you may want to acquire, in advance, any drivers specific to your computer's hardware from the manufacturer and store them on external media as well (USB ThumbDrive or DVD).

 

[morlaine]

Oh, crap, pardon my English. I will have to buy DVDs or data sticks or an external drive to accomplish this. The largest I have at the moment is 8gb. That's part of why it took so long to transfer the data from the Windows 7 to the Windows 10. I'm on a very limited budget so maybe I'll look for other options before I go this route.

You didn't sound too positive that a clean install would solve the problems. It's too bad Microsoft doesn't say that you have to do a clean install rather than touting how easy it is to just upgrade from Windows 8.1.

Is there a way to do a Repair of Windows 10? I seem to remember years ago, I was having problems with Windows 7 and found a way to do a repair and it worked much better after that.

Just a note, it seems to boot quickly enough, it's just the general operation that is so slow. I've looked at everything that runs on Startup and there isn't very much, so I don't think there's a problem there.

Do you have any suggestions of things I might try to help with the speed? All suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Trouble]

Personally, I'd clean boot the system
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135
Use the steps for Windows 8 / 8.1 (same for 10)
Basically just disable everything under the startup tab and then all non-Microsoft services, be sure to check the box to hide all Microsoft services so you don't mess up.
Then I'd reboot the machine and manually run the native defrag / optimizer from Windows Administrative Tools in the Start Menu..... twice rebooting in between and see if that helped at all with your slowness problem.