45 sec boot with Agility 3

[brisa117]

So, I'm running an Asus Sabertooth 990fx with a Phenom II 955 and 12GB of DDR3-1600. I'm booting off of a 120GB Agility 3 and have a 2TB WD20EARX mass storage drive.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here, but my boot is taking upwards of 45 seconds. Am I just expecting too much or is something going wrong here?

 

[chugot9218]

Did try installing the OS with only the SSD plugged in? If both are plugged in there is a chance that Windows may spread some boot files over to the HDD, which means it would have to go over to the HDD during boot to grab a file or two.

 

[brisa117]

Thanks for the tip! I think I did install while.... several drives..... were connected. haha. I'll try that this weekend.

 

[chugot9218]

Yup! That is the safest method, I think somewhere along the line Windows puts something on each of the drives it detects on install that is accessed during boot up, which does not necessarily get put on the drive when it is detected by an already present install.

 

[Jim_L9]

Shut off your machine, disconnect the HDD, turn it on and see if you can boot. That will tell you if the HDD is involved in the boot process.

 

[chugot9218]

^^ Touche! If it isn't an issue with it spread across multiple drives, I can only think it would be a bad windows install, bad SSD, or some kind of virus.

 

[cgner]

Could be SSD controller. Thats their weakest spot and when they go SSD becomes unbearably slow. Also make sure its in AHCI mode (not IDE) and its not 80%+ full.

 

[brisa117]

Thanks for all the tips... I know it's probably not a virus, as I recently reinstalled windows because of thIs exact problem. It's also definitely not 80% full. More like 55%-60%. I will also check the AHCI modettomorrow.

So when you say "files spread across drives" do you mean the MBR being on the platter drive?

Also, I don't have any problems with the speed when I'm in windows, like Photoshop loads fast like it should and game loads are astonishing. Would a "bad SSD" act like that? Honestly it's not a big deal, but my laptop's Samsung 830 has me spoiled with a 12 second boot. I know that a laptop system is much simpler than a full desktop system AND that the Samsung 830 is faster... but I still think 45 seconds is a pain. Haha. SSDs spoil me.

 

[mad-max79]

Boot time also depends on how many devices needs to be initialised during boot, also BIOS POST needs often more time on desktop machines.
So it could be possible that your boot time is fine.

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Just a quick FYI
If you have Sata 6gbps ports and a Sata 6gbps drive but using a really crappy sata cable you get all kinds of speed problems, learnt this the hard way

 

[Sakkura]

I get to Win 7 desktop in just over 20 seconds, including entering password, on my system booting off a 120 GB Agility 3.

Of course, the SSD only actually affects the time it takes AFTER the OS starts loading. POST and such takes as long as the BIOS wants. It may be possible to change how long the BIOS waits for user input, making it possible to shorten boot time.

 

[RetiredChief]

s Sakkura stated. Only count the time from "Start loading OS" to time to open first program. (Omit any time "on hold" waiting for a pass word.

Yes, Installation should be done with ALL other HDDs disconnected, and BIOS set to AHCI.

Recommend Downloading AS SSD benchmark, do not need to run benchmark, just open the program and look at upper left. It should show:
.. SSD make/FW version/formated size. Should always have the latest Firmware for the SSD, and it is also recommended that the latest system Bios update be used.
.. Will show driver, should initially be msahci, if This is intel based system down load the latest Intel chipset driver (iaSTor) which is slightly better than the defaul MS driver. If it is in IDE mode it will show pcide=BAD, which says it all.
.. Should also show partition alignment = OK.

Just as a side note, ignore comments about sata II vs Sata III. The Agility III is really (performance wise) a SATA II SSD cloaked in a SATA III dress. That is it performance is NO better on SATA III than it does on SATA II. This was addressed in a Review, and I confirmed on my systems - Have two 120 gig Agility IIIs.

 

[Sakkura]

Just as a side note, ignore comments about sata II vs Sata III. The Agility III is really (performance wise) a SATA II SSD cloaked in a SATA III dress. That is it performance is NO better on SATA III than it does on SATA II. This was addressed in a Review, and I confirmed on my systems - Have two 120 gig Agility IIIs.

It can go above 300 MB/s, which would leave it bottlenecked by SATA2. It's not going to make a huge difference though.

 

[RetiredChief]

Sakkura
If you check, that benchmark was using Data that is reaily compressable (ie ATTO) and is ONLY for Sequencial performance. I should have prefixed my comment with "in Real Life, Day-to-day performance.
If you use a benchmark such as AS SSD you will find SATA II does NOT bottlenech Sequencial performance.

1) ATTO is a poor Benchmark for SSDs, was designed for HDDs. Uses Highly compressable data which is far from reality. Manuf (espeacially SSDs that use the SF22xx) love quoting Sequencial performance as resuls are artificially HIGH.
2) Sequencial performance is the LEAST important matrix for an OS + Program SSD. Is important if for a HDD that has many LARGE sequencial Data files - These files are NOT normally placed on a SSD.
3) If you use AS SSD (designed for a OS +Program drive SSD), you will find (as I did) there is NOT real benifit to placing a Async NAND SF22xx based SSD on SATA III.