slow re-boot after installing slave hard drive

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Guest

Greetings all,
I have installled a slave hard drive on my HP Pavilion. I am running XP
Home. I used computer management/administrative options in XP to format the
new drive. It worked well, and the new drive is working and recognized by the
system. My question is: Since the slave HD has been on the system, I have
extremely slow re-boots. After waiting long enough to generate a few new gray
hairs (OK, it's a really slow re-boot, but not that extreme), everything
works just as the system has operated since new. What have I done wrong? What
would be available to remedy the situation? I am a new user, so I have no
doubt that I have missed something basic. I probably have not even asked the
question in the proper forum! Thank you all very much in advance of any
replies.
Still knot snart, but hoping for a cure.
 
Double check the hard drive jumpers. Make sure you have a 80 wire cable. Can
you determine what part of the starting process is slower than before. Is it
bios related or is it windows loading? Is the new drive set up as active. I
really dont know if that would affect the startup but it might confuse
windows, Its just a thought if you tried every thing else and can't track
down the problem.

I would remove all programs from the startup and have the computer setup so
only windows is loading. Type msconfig in the run box and uncheck
everything from the startup tab. It's easier to fault find that way.

You could download a tool from the drive manufacturer which will check the
drive for errors. Some also have a benchmark program which will give you an
idea of the actual speed of the drive.

If you take the slave drive out does the computer speed up. Have you tried
removing it to make sure. Some people will tell you to run bootvis but I
dont know how good the results will be. Its been a long time since I used
it. You can get it from Kellys-kornerxp.

Your question is fine here but you could have asked it in the hardware group
as that is specifically related to windows and hardware. General is for
posts that dont fit anywhere else.

bootvis
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/BootVis-Tool.exe


Glen P
 
knotsmart said:
Greetings all,
I have installled a slave hard drive on my HP Pavilion. I am running XP
Home. I used computer management/administrative options in XP to format
the
new drive. It worked well, and the new drive is working and recognized by
the
system. My question is: Since the slave HD has been on the system, I have
extremely slow re-boots. After waiting long enough to generate a few new
gray
hairs (OK, it's a really slow re-boot, but not that extreme), everything
works just as the system has operated since new. What have I done wrong?
What
would be available to remedy the situation? I am a new user, so I have no
doubt that I have missed something basic. I probably have not even asked
the
question in the proper forum! Thank you all very much in advance of any
replies.
Still knot snart, but hoping for a cure.
Click to expand...

knotsmart:
It doesn't sound like you've done anything "wrong". Ordinarily when you
install another HD in your machine (we're assuming that HD is being used for
storage/backup purposes, i.e., it does not contain a bootable operating
system) the system might take a couple of seconds more, if that, to boot.
But there shouldn't be an "extremely slow" boot as you say. Give us some
figures comparing the boot time when only your boot drive is connected as
compared with the boot time when both drives are connected.

The info you rec'd from Glen to make sure your secondary HD is connected via
a 80-wire IDE ribbon cable (rather than the 40-wire cables typically used to
connect optical drives) is a good one although I suspect that's not the
problem since you mentioned that second drive is connected as a slave and
I'm assuming you mean it's a slave to your Primary Master HD (the booting
HD) which presumably is using an 80-wire data cable. But it's worth a check.
And while you're at it, ensure that that secondary drive is properly
jumpered and connected to its signal (data) cable. Check to see if there are
any deformed pins on the cable's connector.

I really don't think you have to tinker with msconfig in this situation as
Glen recommended but it's always a good thing to peruse that System
Configuration Utility from time to time and review your Startup programs to
determine if they are really necessary to access upon bootup.

I assume you made no changes in your motherboard's BIOS following the
installation of that second drive, right?

If the differential in boot time is, let's say, 20 or more seconds, try
connecting that second drive on the Secondary IDE channel (either master or
slave positions) and determine if there's any difference that way.
Anna
 
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