Windows 7 after upgrading from Vista

[donnyh13]

Hi all,
I have a rather confusing problem. My grandparents computer has been slow since my mothers brother went up there and upgraded them from Vista home 32 bit, to Windows 7 64 bit proffessional, (why not home edition I don't know). They live a long ways away but have asked us to help them with their computer from time to time, and so we do via remote management, now they have asked us to help them with this problem, and we have tried a bunch of things to fix the problem, apparently it is so slow that even vista was faster (by slow they mean internet pages loading slowly(slower than vista), even when they have good network signal and should be at least getting 1.5 MB download ?) we have tried uninstalling programs that might have slowed them down (avast being one that did help a little, and then easeus backup), this did help a bit but didn't fix the issue. we have cleaned it up of old useless files, defragmented it, used CCleaner to clean the registry and the cookies etc.

We have recently downloaded an entirely new windows 7 repair file to their computer, and repaired it via remote control (insert disk, install windows, upgrade option, etc. activate successful done.) they now say that the computer is worse! we are hoping that this is just the computer getting all of its prefetch/cache etc. in order? Now we are finding that on some forums, they are recommending to do a clean instal like here ( http://), however, that would require us to have to either A walk them though the process and without the computer right in front of us, this would be a long and hard task as they are not very good on computers, or B, get them to ship it here, which would mean they would have no computer for much longer. (and they are less fond of that option), so what we are asking is, this, is there anything else I can try besides a clean install? At one point we were in safe mode, and they did say it was the same, however I could try getting them into safe mode to try again for a day? But they are getting a little tired of this entire process so I would like some ideas as to what the cause is, or what I could do as I am starting to run out of ideas myself.
(note that all of the programs installed on their system are installed on my system as well as my moms,(both windows 7) they should all be compatible after the upgrade? from vista), I am unsure as to what steps my uncle took to upgrade the computer and what he did and didn't check for compatability? etc.

The specs of it I do not know all but some:
HP manufactured it
2 GB RAM
built in video card
400GB left on their hard drive, I think it was 500 but not sure?

Please ask if you need some more info and I can try and get it. Just shoot me as many ideas as you can think of so we can try and fix this thing.


Thanks for your help
Donny

P,S I do not think it is internet speed that is doing it totally at least?

 

[Smawell]

Have you just upgraded? Or have you tried a fresh install from wiping the drives. This could be old files, programs, and maybe the old OS still on the drive bogging down the system. Could also be the switch to 64 from 32 without wiping the drive.

 

[donnyh13]

Have you just upgraded? Or have you tried a fresh install from wiping the drives. This could be old files, programs, and maybe the old OS still on the drive bogging down the system. Could also be the switch to 64 from 32 without wiping the drive.

They upgraded back at the end of July, and im pretty sure it was not a clean install, because they had a separate partition just for backing up to, and afterwards it was still there with files etc. However I am not sure and there is no way to ask. Is there a way to find out for sure?

Yes this was a similar conclusion for bot of us in regards to it not removing the entire old system from the drive. And yes you bring up a good point in regards to switching from 32 to 64, can I find out if 32 is somehow still"running? as it does say that it is 64 bit according to the system information area?

If we were to walk them through doing a clean install, How would you do it ? like format the drive, insert disk, and instal from there? or insert disk, instead of upgrade select customize?

Thanks
Donny

 

[Smawell]

To do a clean install you would just turn off the pc, insert the disk and boot to it. When asked what to do, select custom install. erase, then format the drive, and off you go. You can look through the drive for files from the old install. Set the view options in file explorer to see hidden and OS files to be sure.

 

[donnyh13]

OK, thanks very much. after we did the repair instal (via selecting upgrade) would those files show up as well, or would I be able to tell by date or something if vista files were still there? thanks again!
Donny

 

[Smawell]

Doing an upgrade I believe has the system keep a ton of old file in case you decide to switch back. There would def. have been some files still lingering. And yes, there should be a date attached to the files, just check the date on the folders though, this would be much faster.

 

[donnyh13]

Thanks very much, I will try that out next time they are available to connect. I will let you know what happens.
Donny

 

[donnyh13]

Hello again, I did check their system, it has some files that say they were created/ modified last in 2009, however am I correct in thanking that this doesn't necessarily mean that was when it was created etc?
And as for it maybe being a clash between 32 and 64 bit, I read on microsofts site saying that you cant upgrade form one to the other, does this mean there IS NO option to upgrade? or are they saying that there is an option and a person who doesnt know better could accidently do it? and it would cause problems?
Thanks
Donny