how fast does your p4 2.4ghz need to boot up?

**blackcar** · 05-23-2009, 08:49 PM

Hi all
just trying to gauge if my system needs some tweaking
my pc seems to boot up slower now
It's a P4 with a 2.4ghz cpu and 1gig of ram (so hardware wise I don't think it's that slow)
It takes 1 min and 25 seconds now from the time I press the button to the time I get my windows desktop and able to move the mouse.

How much time do your similarly equipped pc's ( 2.4ghz cpu and 1gig of ram) need to boot?

thanks

**Injector** · 05-23-2009, 08:52 PM

boot times are not as much processor based, but hard drive related, depends on the RPMs of the hard drive, the partitions on it, how full it is, and how you have tweaked your OS.

**blackcar** · 05-23-2009, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Injector

boot times are not as much processor based, but hard drive related, depends on the RPMs of the hard drive, the partitions on it, how full it is, and how you have tweaked your OS.

hmmm interesting, my boot drive is a travelstar 20gb with 4200rpm
I keep my data on a iomega ego 250gb usb drive (I picked it cause it was rated as being the most durable by popular mechanics http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...s/4275478.html)
thanks
my os is un-modded
I did see someone on here post a copy of some ini's? (don't remember it was a while ago)
anyways it was some text files to copy and paste into people's pc's to make them startup faster as it was a stripped down file with less network related configurations.
Can't seem to find it now tough

**TeamRSX** · 05-23-2009, 08:59 PM

My system is a p4 2.4 intel, w/1gig ram and a 7200rpm laptop hardrive. My hard drive is very organized with only what i need on it and my boot time to get into windows from a cold boot is about 30-40 seconds, about just under a minute from the time it starts up til roadrunner starts playing music.

But, i have done tons of tweaks to my os and am satisfied with my boot times..

**Injector** · 05-23-2009, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by blackcar

hmmm interesting, my boot drive is a travelstar 20gb with 3200rpm
I keep my data on a iomega ego 250gb usb drive (I picked it cause it was rated as being the most durable by popular mechanics http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...s/4275478.html)
thanks
my os is un-modded
I did see someone on here post a copy of some ini's? (don't remember it was a while ago)
anyways it was some text files to copy and paste into people's pc's to make them startup faster as it was a stripped down file with less network related configurations.
Can't seem to find it now tough

considering that your HD is 3200 RPM the time you're getting is good, as far as the txt files you're talking about they're probably config scripts for software like nLite that allows you to strip OS features

**blackcar** · 05-24-2009, 02:03 AM

Originally Posted by Injector

considering that your HD is 3200 RPM the time you're getting is good, as far as the txt files you're talking about they're probably config scripts for software like nLite that allows you to strip OS features

sorry had a typo in there, it's a 4200rpm
never realized hd speed made so much of a difference in boot time, otherwise I would have passed on the the usb drive and gotten another internal

**2k1Toaster** · 05-24-2009, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by Injector

boot times are not as much processor based, but hard drive related, depends on the RPMs of the hard drive, the partitions on it, how full it is, and how you have tweaked your OS.

Your P4 can get 20-30 second boot times if you do it right.

You will probably get 30-45 seconds without OS tweaks and just upgrading to a 7200RPM drive.

I have less than 30seconds on a c2d T7600 with 2Gb of RAM on a 7200RPM drive.

**nalav** · 05-24-2009, 04:21 AM

On my old P2 box (400mhz, 256mb ram, slow-as-hell hard drives), I had boot times of just under 5 seconds (not counting bios). While this was on Linux and not Windows, the same general stuff I did holds true.

Run defragmenter and scandisk somewhat regularly, to make sure files are together and not on a bad part of the disk. Otherwise it will take longer if a file needed for boot is broken up or on a bad sector.

Anything and everything that runs that you don't specifically need, get rid of. They're just slowing down your boot up.

If it's possible that something you don't need right away is being started on boot, see if you can have it start later, so it's not taking time in the boot.

You might also look into creating a seperate partition on the disk that will specifically hold only the stuff needed to boot (and as little else as possible). This will ensure that all the necessary files are in the same general location, and the drive doesn't need to look all over the place to find the files.

I seem to remember the outside (last partition) of the disk being the faster one, but don't quote me on that. I'll have to look it up if I get time.

There's more things you can do, this is just the beginnings of a list of stuff to optimize your boot.

**Injector** · 05-24-2009, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by nalav

On my old P2 box (400mhz, 256mb ram, slow-as-hell hard drives), I had boot times of just under 5 seconds (not counting bios). While this was on Linux and not Windows, the same general stuff I did holds true.

Run defragmenter and scandisk somewhat regularly, to make sure files are together and not on a bad part of the disk. Otherwise it will take longer if a file needed for boot is broken up or on a bad sector.

Anything and everything that runs that you don't specifically need, get rid of. They're just slowing down your boot up.

If it's possible that something you don't need right away is being started on boot, see if you can have it start later, so it's not taking time in the boot.

You might also look into creating a seperate partition on the disk that will specifically hold only the stuff needed to boot (and as little else as possible). This will ensure that all the necessary files are in the same general location, and the drive doesn't need to look all over the place to find the files.

I seem to remember the outside (last partition) of the disk being the faster one, but don't quote me on that. I'll have to look it up if I get time.

There's more things you can do, this is just the beginnings of a list of stuff to optimize your boot.

come on did you just compare windows to Linux lol.

on the other hand you can add /sos to your boot line that way instead of the windows logo you will see what the computer is loading and what is taking the longest so you can disable it.