Windows 7 help and possible Mac migration

[Talen]

So once again I find my children have done something to gum up my windows pc. I'm having a bear of a time tracking down the problem and was hoping someone here must have some ideas as I have run virus and spyware checks ( windows security essentials and malware bytes) and there doesn't seem to be a malware problem. Memory svcan, disk surface check and defragger also come up clean.

Problem is, is am still having programes freeze on me whenever they launch (Internet explorer and fantasygrounds), or work at a snails pace. What the heck is it if it's not a virus and how can I fix this without going nuts!

I dual boot off a 2010 iMac so may take the plunge and run a crossover/wine solution, but still need to figure this out. Any suggestions?

[Willot]

The Event viewer say anything?

If you run windows in safe mode the the problem go away? (check your start up programs)

In task Manager do any of the processes seem to be using alot of memory or cpu cycles?

Thats my lot :p

[Talen]

I have to run the event viewer and task manager again when I get home from work...I did run early in the process and nothing jumped out. I also ran in safe mode, but the problem persists there. And restore also failed to fix the problem.

My assumption is there is not a physical problem with memory or the drive since the Mac partition runs fine.

I don't think it's a virus problem because the scans come back clean ( admittedly they could have missed something, but seems unlikely)

My guess is I have something running wild in the background ( I can hear the disk spinning) and this is causing the time outs. Maybe something in my windows install went bad? Is thwir an way repair option? I did try that from the boot menu, but since windows was loading, it didn't do anything.inTracking it down is a pain!

[Willot]

it does sound like the memory and the hard disk is whirring cause it paging. Check virtual memory settings maybe?
Other than that, end task as many running processes as possible to see if problem goes away.

[Griogre]

With kids its quite possible they installed an old game that over wrote either Windows or directX DLLs with older or malicious versions. It's possible they messed up a driver somewhere too. Since kids tend to give anything permission to run to install something they want, the integrity of your malware protection may be suspect. Honestly, if you can't figure out your problem pretty quickly - its likely to be simpler and faster to just format Windows and re-install, but I'm not sure how easy that is in your situation.

[Talen]

Well, I reran the checkdisk and this time made sure bad sectors were recovered( thought I di last time)....but this time it found them. That was definitely the issue....now my problem is reinstalling all the programs that may have been on the bad sectors. FG was one of em and that has been taken care of. Internet explorer was as well, but I cant find it in uninstall to remove it and reinstall. Looks like the only remaining issue is making sure all the broken bits are identified and reinstalled.

...and I still blame the kids because I caught my son shutting the computer off with a power button rather than shutting down.

Progress anyway!

[Trenloe]

Well, I reran the checkdisk and this time made sure bad sectors were recovered( thought I di last time)....but this time it found them. That was definitely the issue....now my problem is reinstalling all the programs that may have been on the bad sectors.
Time for a new hard drive mate - if you have a bunch of bad sectors now, you'll only get more. It's a sign your hard drive is on the way out... Keep an eye on it and do checkdisk after a couple of day - if it finds even a few bad sectors again then better swap it out.

[damned]

and backup your data!