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Question

Resetting Windows 10 PC

Jun 17, 2019 1:46PM PDT

It seems no matter what, after five to six years of working on a system, my computer performance eventually begins to drop to a crawl. When it gets to the point where junk cleanup, registry sweeps, defrag, boot optimization and virus scans are no longer helping, I will usually take a clean HDD and reinstall the current OS and then reinstall all my files and programs. This works and I am usually good for another few years. But it is a lengthy process.
Does anyone have any suggestions on a better way to do a complete spring cleaning to a computer without doing what amounts to a factory restore?
Just in case it helps, here are the specifics on the one machine that is giving me issues:
Dell Precision 5810 - x64-based PC
BIOS: Dell Inc. A09, 9/26/2015 v2.8
RAM: 32gb
1Tb HDD System Drive (Migrating to 1TB SSD)
Windows 10 - Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134

I appreciate any suggestions and welcome any questions.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I clone the old HDD. Why?
Jun 17, 2019 1:55PM PDT

Because HDDs have an issue where the more you fill them the slower they go. Today that means a lot of lag as the HDD is essentially the anchor your boat is dragging.

I'd clone the drive before considering a full reset.

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Answer
Why
Jun 18, 2019 6:09PM PDT

The old version of w10 and bios?
Are your drivers also that old?

After you get this reinstalled on a new hdd take a look at your storage usage.
Now run your stuff and watch storage usage.
If it keeps creeping up it might be normal or something is a packrat.
It will be up to you to track it backwards.

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Update Response
Jun 18, 2019 8:40PM PDT

Thanks for responses so far. I know part of the issue does become capacity of programs and OS on root drive. Other appears to be patch and update accumulation of things like the OS. I am hoping that in going to a SSD and putting only OS and system dependent software on the boot drive, it will last longer. I do a lot of graphics intensive work, so one of my issues is the constant battle between OS updates, graphics driver updates and program updates (Adobe CC software). Editing video or getting File Explorer to be responsive becomes painfully slow.
One question if I may, if I just reset Windows 10, does it reset to the baseline I installed and then needs to be upgraded to current version? If so, am I better off just procuring latest version and installing it fresh?
Thanks again for taking time to respond.

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From what I've seen, no.
Jun 18, 2019 9:11PM PDT

W10 changed everything. If you had an old version installed a reset does not go back to that old version but the current version.

As to the SSD, I worry you have not been on a SSD based system and may try the old boot/OS drive on SSD and everything else on slow, maybe bad HDD system.

I can't tell you how often I encounter a HDD with high values in the SMART 01 and 07 registers and the user/owner/client wants to keep the (rappy old drive. If they want to fix it, you dump that HDD. I can't tell from above if that's in play here.

But we know HDDs slow as you fill them. I haven't seen that effect on SSDs unless you get to a few MB free.