Verry slow boot

[Guest]

someone installed a new larger HDD and ever since it takes ages to load.

It seems to get stuck on a black screen with cursor blinking before finding
the operating system.

If I press for bios it does the same thing before it enters the bios. Just
wondering if I should looking at bios instead of boot.ini (which is missing
off the msconfig tab by the way).

I'm not sure if i should be looking at hardware (such as graphics card), OS
files (create new boot.ini). There is only one XPP, two partitions on the
250gb drive.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Pepper

Could be you need to update a driver.

Please check Event Viewer for Warning / Error Reports in the System and
Application logs for the last boot and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button
resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message.
This will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report into the
message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties. Hardware,
Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Was the drive cleaned up after the installation?

To increase you free space on your C partition select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options,
System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore points?

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files
you should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All
Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

"was the drive cleaned up after installation"

You should always run Disk CleanUp followed by Disk Defragmenter in
after installing Windows and programmes.

How are each of the partitions described in Disk Management? Start,
Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk
Management? Which are healthy?
In Windows Explorer find your boot.ini file in the root of your C drive.
Open it with Notepad and copy and paste the contents in a further
message.

To see your boot.ini file you may need to make sure that you can
see all files. Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View,
Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden files
and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files"
is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item.
You should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for
known file types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make
sure View, Details is selected and then select View, Choose Details
and check before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

For information but hold back on using advice until we know more
about what is going on.

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Kerry Brown]

Was any other hardware added at the same time? Is the new hard drive a
different type than the old drive (e.g. SATA)? It sounds like the BIOS is
taking a while to identify the new drive. This may be because of several
different issues. The most likely is a simple BIOS setting.

 

[Kerry Brown]

That is normal if the BIOS is having a hard time identifying the drive. Make
sure all the cables and jumpers are correct.