Slow boot

[bryan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

System: XP SP1, Fedora Core; dual boot using XP's NTLDR boot loader (ie
Fedora on 2nd drive, copy of Linux drive boot sector on 'C').
Problem: POST completes successfully; XP-Linux menu displayed; choose XP;
black/white bar appears at bottom of otherwise black screen, eventually
turning white; normal XP start screen appears and eventually XP comes up but
can take up to 7 mins.Problem is intermittent, ~ once/week or less.

If Linux is chosen, Linux boots without problems. Have recently made boot
floppy containing NTLDR, NTdetect.com, boot.ini. Boot from this floppy
allows XP to come up without problems.
Thus problem appears to be associated with booting exclusively from C drive.
(Only problem observed with that drive was 12 months ago when Drive Image
claimed discrepancy between LBA and CHS, and I allowed DI to 'fix'.)

The intermittent nature of the problem makes investigation more difficult.
However can anyone tell me what the black/white bar is? I have asked this
question more than once without reply. As the drive LED is on at the time, I
assume, rightly or wrongly, that a check is being made on that drive. If
this is the case, does this mean that XP believes that the drive is not
clean? I have considered FIXMBR/FIXBOOT but am a bit concerned that I may
lose data, although I do maintain drive images, initially via Drive Image
and lately with Acronis TrueImage. Also if there was corruption of the
drives mbr/boot sector, I would have thought the problem would have been
constant, and not intermittent.
(Note: this problem was evident even prior to setting up a dual boot
system).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Try going to google.com/search type:Boot_Vis Locate the microsoft boot
utility,download,install,run...

"Bryan" wrote:

> System: XP SP1, Fedora Core; dual boot using XP's NTLDR boot loader (ie
> Fedora on 2nd drive, copy of Linux drive boot sector on 'C').
> Problem: POST completes successfully; XP-Linux menu displayed; choose XP;
> black/white bar appears at bottom of otherwise black screen, eventually
> turning white; normal XP start screen appears and eventually XP comes up but
> can take up to 7 mins.Problem is intermittent, ~ once/week or less.
>
> If Linux is chosen, Linux boots without problems. Have recently made boot
> floppy containing NTLDR, NTdetect.com, boot.ini. Boot from this floppy
> allows XP to come up without problems.
> Thus problem appears to be associated with booting exclusively from C drive.
> (Only problem observed with that drive was 12 months ago when Drive Image
> claimed discrepancy between LBA and CHS, and I allowed DI to 'fix'.)
>
> The intermittent nature of the problem makes investigation more difficult.
> However can anyone tell me what the black/white bar is? I have asked this
> question more than once without reply. As the drive LED is on at the time, I
> assume, rightly or wrongly, that a check is being made on that drive. If
> this is the case, does this mean that XP believes that the drive is not
> clean? I have considered FIXMBR/FIXBOOT but am a bit concerned that I may
> lose data, although I do maintain drive images, initially via Drive Image
> and lately with Acronis TrueImage. Also if there was corruption of the
> drives mbr/boot sector, I would have thought the problem would have been
> constant, and not intermittent.
> (Note: this problem was evident even prior to setting up a dual boot
> system).
>
>
>

 

[bryan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Already done that. Found to be of little value as problem is so intermittent
and usually occurs on the first start of the day, and vary rarely on a
restart, thus running boot_vis merely shows a fast normal startup.
I am asking "what is happenning when I see the black/white bar at the bottom
of the screen. Is this indicative of a disc scan?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

I have a very similar problem.
I came home one day and my system was severly bogged down, to about locked
status, It had been running for a few days so no problem, i reboot, but it
doesn't come back up (or so i thought). I play with it a bit both hardware
and little bit of software i could, and got nowhere. Decided to reload Win XP
Pro. Removed partition and started format, but no progress. messed with it
some more, tried again and decided just to wait... After about 45 minutes the
Format Finally made 1%, and eventually finished and continued windows
install. Upon first boot it posted and then went to a black screen, I was
upset and along with repeating the same troubleshooting (i don't remember
exactly) but i may have went as far as reloading again. Eitherway, After post
it goes to a black screen, sits there for 1-2minutes, then I get that same
Gray Loading bar at the bottom of the screen and nothing else, This slowly
makes its way half way across, taking about 10 minutes, then in a flash loads
the rest of the way and flashes the windows Splash screen then Windows loads.

XP runs fine once it is up, it just takes 10-15 minutes to get there. System
is Athlon 2500+xp, 512Ram, OS Drive is 80gig maxtor, contected master to a
raid connection set as IDE, Also Two 120gigs Mirrored together.

I have Done everything i can think of hardware wise, including connecting
the OS drive alone directly to IDE connection instead of raid, reset bios
defaults, Reloading again, Windows XP Check Disk... and more...

Going into safemode does the same thing, except instead of a loading bar, it
slowly and one by one lists the files, then in a flash, shows the splash
screen and windows boots...

I want to diagnose the problem before i load a bunch of software so i have
not ran any heavy Hard Disk usage tests but EVERYTHING seems fine, except for
the boot.

Any other suggestions...
PS: I appologize for the length.