My slow booting PC...i want it faster!

[DontDoIt]

Hi People.

My computer is slow at booting and it annoys the hell out of me!

How can i speed it up?

Just so you know i have stopped almost all of the programs from boot...
I have stopped the unneeded services from starting but it still takes at least 2 mins before you can actually do anything on the computer after power on!! I know it should be faster TBH!

Any help would be nice?!?

Thanks
Craig.

[Lucio]

It depends, if you've only recently installed the OS (6 months or less), then I'd look at doing some maintenence like running defrag, double checking which programs load on start (System Mechanic is a big help here) and so on.

If you've had your current install a while, back up your data and reinstall the OS, and think carefully which programs you install back onto your system.

[MSIC]

Does it search for networked folders?
Is your router set up DHCP or for a set IP address?

[s3ds]

1st run Anti virus check (AVG)
2nd run spyware check ( Spybot + Addaware )
3rd uninstall unused softwae and demo's ( CCleaner )
4th stop unused loading at startup ( startupCPL )
5th run registry check ( CCleaner )
6th check unused space on drive is 25% or greater and defrag ( Auslogics Disk defrag )

thats what i would do and use to do it

[wellmad]

I had the exact same problem with a new build Q6600 on an P5K deluxe with 4gb ram. the machine specs are good, on paper it should be a beast, it runs quite fast, but....it still takes nearly 2 whole minutes to boot.

I did thorough research on it, tried all of the suggestions in this post and others such as removing unneeded fonts and clearing the prefetch folder. i am still looking for a solution =)

What hardware are you running and what OS?

[lodore]

1. run antivirus check dr web cure it.
Download Dr.Web CureIt! Free anti-virus scanner, cures computers viruses.
doesnt need to be installed.

2. run antispyware superantispyware
SUPERAntiSpyware.com - AntiAdware, AntiSpyware, AntiMalware!
adaware and spybot are pretty useless these days and thats why i reccomend superantispyware

3. run jkdefrag
JkDefrag v3.34
doesnt need to be installed.

4.uninstall any unneeded software.

what antivirus/security software do you currently run?
if you use norton or mcafeee uninstall it and replace it with avast
avast! antivirus - high security and protection from malware with anti-spyware and anti-rootkit software built in
if you dont mind paying for protection buy eiether drweb or kaspersky.


I wouldnt reccomend using registry cleaners since they are likely to cause more harm than good.

i have a pc with quad core Q6600 and 2gb of ram with vista and it is quite slow at booting.
i blame eiether 1. the hard drive speed or 2. Vista.
my sergestions above should help you thou.

Note to wellmad: cleaning out the prefetch folder will only make things slower and not faster

[Rosaline]

Before the real work starts, the use of some diagnostic tools might be able to help guide your actions in the later steps.

The Vista event log (events of type 100 to 199, I believe) stores details of how long it took to boot and how long various drivers took to kick in. Similar functionality is availible via BootVis under XP, however this is discontinued. Be warned however that both these methods are for expert use only and are very difficult for the layperson to correctly understand. if you do plan to do such investigations, do not touch your computer until windows has fully loaded.

You can also play around before doing any other work to see if any particular programs are causing you a problem. By disabling the services and startup for various things you have installed, you might be able to find that some programs should be replaced. The most common culprit for this seems to be anti-virus software.

If you are happy to reinstall and have decided to do so, you may wish to repartition so that the bits you want to load fast are fixed to the 'front' of the disk. HDTach is useful for determining the extent of the fastest part of your drive, and you can find guides elsewhere on using it properly to get meaningful results. As a rule, though, it seems that the first 10% of a drive is the fastest.

The first thing to look at when wanting your computer to boot faster is, in my opinion, the hardware itself. Remove any hardware that you do not actually use - old systems might well have a telephone modem still installed inside, for example. It might also be worth considering upgrades, most importantly (in terms of ease of upgrade and comparative cost) for your hard drives. If your main boot drive is an old PATA IDE drive and yet your motherboard supports SATA, you will want to get a shiny new SATA drive instead. The differences there are actually quite noticeable in my opinion.

Your next stop should be the BIOS. As always, if you are not sure, then leave things well alone - you might have big problems otherwise. Disable any integrated system for which you are using a discrete card for - for example, graphics or sound. If you have not made any hardware changes, you can also turn on fast POST (or turn off full POST, your BIOS might call this something else). If you do switch to fast POST, however, make sure you run a full POST after any hardware changes, moving your PC, and anything else that might have caused damage to the electronics. You also want to tweak the boot order. If the BIOS is always set to boot from CD first, then every time you start up, it will have to spin up your CD drive to check to see if it can boot from it. You should always be using your fastest drive as your primary drive, and set the BIOS to boot straight from that device. Remember, however, to change that back for reinstalling from a CD or the like.

For the best results, I would strongly recommend reinstalling your operating system. Back up all your important files to another drive, so that you may reformat and have a nice clean slate to begin from. If you want to create a "fast essentials" boot partition, now is the time to do this. One advantage of such a partition is that when reinstalling windows, you will only have to back up the contents of that partition, leaving your media collection safe on the other one. be sure to install these partitions on your fastest (often the newest, but check the details) drive.

Once you have reinstalled windows (or are back into windows if you are not reinstalling), first remove all unneeded windows components via the add/remove control panel. Also have a look within there for any regular programs that might have snuck on that you do not need.

If you have reinstalled, the next step before startup optimisation is to install drivers and your essential programs. By doing this now, you should not have to tweak the startup programs and services for a second time, since many common programs like to insert themselves into such places. First install your drivers, and then your programs. Install your programs in their order of usage, not perceived importance. You might well be a busy gamer, but odds are you will notice longer startup times more for firefox, your IMs and the like. If you have partitioned into a 'fast' and 'slower' pair, only place programs onto the faster part for which you will actively notice the startup time. I find that I am happy to let a game spend a while loading up, but when I want to get some work done, I want office opening fast. Only a few games really benefit from significantly sped up loading times. Also, during the installations only install what you need. Many installations nowadays try and sneak in additional browser toolbars and the like, and if you have an option to prevent this, do so unless you really do want the features.

Once your programs are installed, it is time for a tough choice. Many programs now either load entirely on startup (for instance, Steam and most IMs), or install "loading helpers" to make their first startup a bit faster (winamp, adobe reader, Office). You need to decide what you will most want to do after starting up your PC, and if you are happy waiting for some programs to fully load in exchange for a faster boot time. Most programs offer you the ability to turn off their auto-start or pre-loading within their options, and you should use the program's own option setting for this wherever possible.

Do not forget your computer's security and maintenance, you will also want to install a firewall, virus scanner and defrag software now too. However pick carefully and take a look at comparisons. Many of these programs are known for causing significantly lengthened startup times. The best defragmentation software will optimise according to your actual program usage, however this feature typically costs a lot extra, and there is debate over if the improvements are noticable.

Once the installations are all done, it is time to tweak everything else. Personally, I start not with startup details, but with the look and feel settings of windows. By turning off all the features I can live without, windows will feel faster overall. In theory, also, any of the fancy window border effects that require loading more images from files will also result in a slightly slower startup. I should note, however, that I currently use XP, and this may not hold true for vista. Similarly, a desktop wallpaper must be loaded from a file, decoded and stored in memory. You will likely not notice the changes from these tweaks alone in terms of startup times, but they might well add up with other small tweaks.

Your next stop will probably be the 'Services' administrative control panel. There are many good guides on how to tweak this kicking around, so I will not go into depth on it here. Two thing I will comment on, however. I noticed using BootVis that the printer spooler services took a very long time to initialise. Whilst most services set to manual start the moment you do something relating to them, this service does not start at all unless you literally manually start it. Also, be extremely careful touching any services relating to windows file sharing. I have found that any tweaks to these can cause it to break entirely, to allow you to access shares but other people to not be able to see your shares, to allow other people to see your shares but you can't see their ones, to cause your shares to be available only via IP, and so on. If you do not have a home network, however, feel free to disable these. An additional thing to note is that various drivers might encourage you to use their very own special interfaces (most notably wireless cards) when the built in windows tools will work just fine - however be warned that this may well remove access to some advanced functionality.

There are a number of other places that programs wanting to load on startup can hide. I personally use the msconfig tool to manage all these at once, however I do not known if this works under Vista. You will want to look at the "startup" tab to find the complete listing. Before making any changes, look up the files in question online, to check exactly what they do. Some of them relate to various drivers, and should not be touched under certain system setups. You might also find that certain software you have installed has evilly placed super secret startup programs, such as 4OD. Disabling these will speed up your startup and give you control of your system, but they are also likely to affect the functioning of these programs. Modify these entries at your own risk.

There are various folders you will want to regularly keep clear. Although this may not effect your startup times, clearing these will help things keep running smoothly, and help your defrag sessions work better. The main ones are the documents and settings (username) local setting temp folders.

Once you have finished all your installations and tweaks, check that nothing else has been secretly installed. The only place that is likely to be left for this would be your browsers. Launch your browser of choice, and check that no additional add-ons have been added that you did not want. If they have, disable and remove them, as they will make your browsers slower to load.

Once you have finished, run a defrag to deal with the leftover free space after installers have deleted temporary directories. You may also be able to select a "optimise MBR" or "Defrag boot sector" type option, and if so you should choose it. This should help add a little bit of extra speed. There is debate over if this is the same thing as done by BootVis, and it seems to be generally recommended now that you do not use the BootVis feature.

[MSIC]

Please tell me that you copied and pasted that from somewhere else - that is one serious answer!
Just one point though (and yes, i did read it all!) - i'm not sure that firefox does install a 'fast boot' app like MS office or Adobe Reader do.
Tell me if i'm wrong as i'd like to know.

Edit: I have just looked at the O.P.'s 'My System' spec, and note hard drives as "80 Gig + 400 Gig" - the 80 Gig is almost certainly an older, slower model, and i assume that it is the boot drive.
As mentioned above, speed can be gained from buying a new one, but you probably will have sucess by swapping the 2 around and making the 400 Gig the boot drive. It's not the 400 Gig capacity itself that makes it faster, but every 6 months to a year manufacturers come out with better ways to use the cache, to increase cache size, improve read & writes through firmware, as well as having higher densities through improved technologies. These all make newer hard drives faster. I'd recommend something with the largest single platter that you can find, something like one of the 320GB models (someone help me out here - does Western Dig or Samsung or Seagate have 1 platter models currently available??)

[Rosaline]

I've corrected the instructions now Although I swear at one time Firefox did have a preloader, it does not seem to currently use one, you're right.

I've also added a generic note regarding picking which hard drive to use and the boot device order. You're right about the OP's drives, I suspect!

[digit]

Exactly as what MSIC said, replace the 80 gig drive with a brand new drive, and relegate it to music file/ download storage. It could also be that your windows installation may not be fresh and have a lot of stuff loading on startup. It may be worth just doing a fresh install, should make a big difference.

Damm thats one hell of a response Rosaline you've given! Very in depth!

[DontDoIt]

Idea for switching the drives sounds like a plan, but my 400Gb has 300Gb of downloads on it...so i might just buy a new HDD as i dont want to download some of it again!

But i have tried some of the suggestions on here, none of which have speeded up the system...so i will be trying a new disk!! Any recommendations on a fast disk? for under £200?

[Giraffe]

My boot drive is a 4-year-old SATA1 80GB Maxtor and it's up and running in about 1 minute with XP Pro SP2 and only 1GB of RAM on a 1900MHz dual-core Athlon, so there's definitely something wrong with your system; I also have a lot of things starting on boot (about 12 - not too sure).

[ikix]

500GB - cheap and quiet - clicky
750GB - good value - clicky
750GB - nice and quiet - clicky
1000GB (1TB) - good value - clicky
1000GB (1TB) - alternative - clicky

[MSIC]

The 500 GB Western Dig is good value - personally i think 500GB is overkill for a boot drive (knowing you already have 400GB for data) however as long as you dont pay over the odds then you certainly dont lose.
And 400 to 500 GB is pretty much the sweet spot at the moment, so why not.

Under £200 ??? Between £50 and £70 is what you want to look at for something really good (quiet, reliable, low power, fast, large capacity).

[DontDoIt]

Ah very nice price on the WD drive indeed!

I actually need more space...i have downloaded 500Gb in the last 6 months! About 300Gb i have kept after watching/playing it!

But i might get one of those 300Gb raptors when they come out but until then i will just get a small drive i think!