Reducing boot up time

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Eagle156

2[H]4U
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Jan 21, 2006
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What are some ways to reduce boot up time? It takes around 50 seconds for me from pushing the power button to windows being usable. I'm using XP SP2, no spyware/viruses, most of the stuff I don't need in msconfig turned off, and 26 processes at start up. The only reason I bring this up is because I read a thread about someone booting up in 20sec (which I can't find anymore) with an old rig, so I'd like to get it around that neighborhood.
 
try defragmenting your hard drive and cleaning up your registry with a program like registry mechanic
 
Is their hardware comparable?

I mean, what if they have a Raptor...and you don't..or a RAID array?

..and yes a Raptor can be in an "old" rig.
 
Microsoft Bootvis can order the boot process more efficiently so less time is spent waiting for timeouts, processes to finish etc.
You'll need to read up how to use it properly as you wont guess.
 
20 seconds is going to require turning off services and getting a /really/ fast drive (Raptor) or a RAID 0 or RAID 5 array to boot off of. Ideally, a RAID 0 array made entirely of 15,000 RPM SCSI disks. Setting up static IPs instead of using DHCP if the machine is networked (I'm assuming it is) will also help.
 
u can also try turning off some windows services
 
50 seconds isn't bad..... But I'll second Bootvis... it should speed things up a bit...
 
From a base MS Windows XP install, from a cold boot I can still get to my desktop in under 15seconds.

Base install meaning, it is only windows and nothing more.
 
BaGGy said:
From a base MS Windows XP install, from a cold boot I can still get to my desktop in under 15seconds.

Base install meaning, it is only windows and nothing more.
Click to expand...

That's also heavily dependent on the motherboard and BIOS you're running as well as hardware configuration.
 
I would rather no post my specs as it would embarass me for the rest of my life... well maybe not that extreme but close enough. :p
 
I used bootvis and it seems to have made it a bit faster. TY. I used the Trace Boot + Drivers option and Optimize System, based on a guide my friend Google found. Is that the correct method?
One thing I don't get is bootvis reports a startup time of 30 seconds, while the timer on my watch shows 47+ to the point where the welcome screen disappears. I defrag regularly and I don't want to mess with the registry, so it doesn't seem like I can do much more.
 
Yeah Bootvis only looks at things it can tweak, it doesnt change the BIOS/CMOS so theres no point in monitoring it.

I checked my boot time and its just over 50 seconds for the desktop to become usable.
I consider this fine.
 
My main rig boots XP SP2 in 35-40 seconds. I have 18 processes loaded at startup. I'm not sure how I got it this fast. All I do is go into msconfig and disable whatever processes I don't need, then do the same thing for services from the service management console.

I do know that it was much quicker with just SP1 (nearly under 30 sec).

My 98SE box (P3 866Mhz/512MB/80gb.8mb.7200.pata) boots in under 30 seconds, though. :D
 
Are you running any PATA / IDE connected components?

If so that could be slowing your boot time down.
 
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