Ungodly XP Load Time

**Pokerface** · 05-25-2004, 11:09 PM

OK... so here's the dilly-yo.

The 60 GBHDD that came with my computer started exhibiting some oddness; not enough to kill it, but enough to keep me from trusting it anymore. So I bought a new Seagate 160GB HDD to be my main drive, and relegated the wonky one to slave. Reformats and reinstalls all around, and XP now lives on the 160GB HDD. The 160 is formatted out to four logical drives, and the 60 is two of 'em.

And now, instead of a load time around a minute (from POST to XP logon screen), I just sat through over 45 minutes of loading. About half of it was the black screen in between the initial XP screen (with the black background and the green status bar thinger), and half of the blue-backed "Windows is now starting" screen -- at that point, at least I had a mouse pointer to play with.

Any clues? Solutions?

Fait_Maker · 05-25-2004, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pokerface

OK... so here's the dilly-yo.

The 60 GBHDD that came with my computer started exhibiting some oddness; not enough to kill it, but enough to keep me from trusting it anymore. So I bought a new Seagate 160GB HDD to be my main drive, and relegated the wonky one to slave. Reformats and reinstalls all around, and XP now lives on the 160GB HDD. The 160 is formatted out to four logical drives, and the 60 is two of 'em.

And now, instead of a load time around a minute (from POST to XP logon screen), I just sat through over 45 minutes of loading. About half of it was the black screen in between the initial XP screen (with the black background and the green status bar thinger), and half of the blue-backed "Windows is now starting" screen -- at that point, at least I had a mouse pointer to play with.

Any clues? Solutions?

I have seen that anytime I put a Quantum and a Western Digital together. It didn't matter which one I mastered or slaved. The Quantum slowed to an absolute crawl through anything. Taking the WD out and backing the Q with another Q worked just fine and my wife now has the two WD's, working together well also. Maybe this is the problem? Disconnect the data ribbon to the slave and see if you exhibit anymore problems.

**Overlag** · 05-26-2004, 07:50 AM

fait has a point...mixing drives can be a bad idea...

you got them "masterd" and "slaved" right?? (oh god is that banned over there?! lol)
try it with cable select on, sometimes this makes things better, sometimes worse...

as fait said, try it without that bad drive plugged in.

also did you install the latest motherboard drivers?! (VIA or Intel or Nvidia or SIS?)

**Pokerface** · 05-26-2004, 10:28 AM

Excellent suggestions, both of them. Of course, they both require me to reboot, so I'll file them away in the back of my head for later.

Keep 'em coming, if ya got 'em.

**=DdogG=** · 05-27-2004, 02:55 AM

I just tried to repair a 3.2 gig seagate and put it in my computer to pull off the info. I runn my wd on a pci raid card, and my cdroms on the primary onboard ide. I plugged the 3.2 into the 2ndary onboard ide and the computer hung just before the xp loading screen thing for 30 minutes at which point I gave up. the drive did the same thing as the only thing attached to two different computers. no odd noises, no indication of error. as soon as I unplugged it, 30 seconds from power button to desktop again. the 3.2 drive is dead. rip. i think you might have the same thing.

**CingularDuality** · 05-27-2004, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pokerface

Excellent suggestions, both of them. Of course, they both require me to reboot, so I'll file them away in the back of my head for later.

Keep 'em coming, if ya got 'em.

Of course they'll require you to reboot. You're not trying to use this computer in this condition, are you? I would consider it to be inoperable still.

**Pokerface** · 05-27-2004, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

Of course they'll require you to reboot. You're not trying to use this computer in this condition, are you? I would consider it to be inoperable still.

Yeah, I'm using the computer. Once it's up, it doesn't give me any issues performance-wise, and I don't have anything sitting on the wonky 60GB that I use often and/or care about much. The 160GB purrs perfectly once everything boots.

Widowmaker · 05-27-2004, 01:27 PM

mmmm my Main drive is WD and my Backup is a Maxtor. never had any problems with XP hanging with either install or since wich was over a year ago.....

05-25-2004, 11:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
Pokerface Join Date: May 2003 Location: MD, USA Age: 29 Posts: 5,722	Ungodly XP Load Time OK... so here's the dilly-yo. The 60 GBHDD that came with my computer started exhibiting some oddness; not enough to kill it, but enough to keep me from trusting it anymore. So I bought a new Seagate 160GB HDD to be my main drive, and relegated the wonky one to slave. Reformats and reinstalls all around, and XP now lives on the 160GB HDD. The 160 is formatted out to four logical drives, and the 60 is two of 'em. And now, instead of a load time around a minute (from POST to XP logon screen), I just sat through over 45 minutes of loading. About half of it was the black screen in between the initial XP screen (with the black background and the green status bar thinger), and half of the blue-backed "Windows is now starting" screen -- at that point, at least I had a mouse pointer to play with. Any clues? Solutions? __________________ NS Game Officer. TF2 Admin. BF2 Admin / Scripter. PM with issues. Tempus: Pokerface is nailing it right on the head. Everyone who is arguing against him is simply arguing against reality. <anmuzi> it is not permitted to have privacy or anonymity <LazyEye> yeah when I play on TG the server digs though my trash Arm yourself with knowledge: TG NS TF2 BF2

05-26-2004, 07:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
Overlag Join Date: May 2003 Location: NE Outer London, UK Age: 26 Posts: 1,540	Re: Ungodly XP Load Time fait has a point...mixing drives can be a bad idea... you got them "masterd" and "slaved" right?? (oh god is that banned over there?! lol) try it with cable select on, sometimes this makes things better, sometimes worse... as fait said, try it without that bad drive plugged in. also did you install the latest motherboard drivers?! (VIA or Intel or Nvidia or SIS?) __________________ From Adam Webb

05-26-2004, 10:28 AM	#4 (permalink)
Pokerface Join Date: May 2003 Location: MD, USA Age: 29 Posts: 5,722	Re: Ungodly XP Load Time Excellent suggestions, both of them. Of course, they both require me to reboot, so I'll file them away in the back of my head for later. Keep 'em coming, if ya got 'em. __________________ NS Game Officer. TF2 Admin. BF2 Admin / Scripter. PM with issues. Tempus: Pokerface is nailing it right on the head. Everyone who is arguing against him is simply arguing against reality. <anmuzi> it is not permitted to have privacy or anonymity <LazyEye> yeah when I play on TG the server digs though my trash Arm yourself with knowledge: TG NS TF2 BF2

05-27-2004, 02:55 AM	#5 (permalink)
=DdogG= Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Ennis, TX Age: 31 Posts: 1,690	Re: Ungodly XP Load Time I just tried to repair a 3.2 gig seagate and put it in my computer to pull off the info. I runn my wd on a pci raid card, and my cdroms on the primary onboard ide. I plugged the 3.2 into the 2ndary onboard ide and the computer hung just before the xp loading screen thing for 30 minutes at which point I gave up. the drive did the same thing as the only thing attached to two different computers. no odd noises, no indication of error. as soon as I unplugged it, 30 seconds from power button to desktop again. the 3.2 drive is dead. rip. i think you might have the same thing. __________________ Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -Albert Einstein The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. -Harlan Ellison If all else fails: "rm -rf /"

05-27-2004, 01:27 PM	#8 (permalink)
Widowmaker Banned Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Westfield, MA Posts: 131	Re: Ungodly XP Load Time mmmm my Main drive is WD and my Backup is a Maxtor. never had any problems with XP hanging with either install or since wich was over a year ago.....

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