XP boot time on Mac Mini

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 10:05 AM

I have an Intel Mac Mini 1.86Ghz w/XP running via bootcamp. It taks about 90 seconds to fully boot into my front end app, and about 55 seconds to resume from hibernation. I have disabled all unneeded services in XP. I will probably do the minlogon route to see if that speeds anything up.

What are your XP boot times?

Would a clean XP install with no OSX speed it up?

Machinehead · 07-08-2008, 10:35 AM

I've gotten it down to 50 seconds for a cold boot and about 30 for hibernation. Minlogon doesn't really help much, it may save you a few seconds. I'm recommend getting TuneXP (Link:http://www.download.com/TuneXP/3000-...-10290929.html) and running the ultra-fast boot option. It essentially defrags and moves the critical boot files around to optimize boot times. Download and run bootvis and have it optimize your boot up.

Also disable any hardware that you aren't using, like the wired ethernet, bluetooth, wifi, etc.

Probably the biggest slowdown on the Mini is the 10+ seconds it takes to get out of the bios and start the OS boot process.

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 11:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Machinehead

Download and run bootvis and have it optimize your boot up.

Thanks -- I have disabled wired ethernet, but using bluetooth so I can't do that.

From what I read on microsoft site XP sp2 already uses bootvis or bootvis logic -- have you actually used it or TuneXP?

Machinehead · 07-08-2008, 11:37 AM

I've used both, TuneXP's Ultra-fast boot option had a noticeable effect on boot time for me.

Another thing to look into is nlite to create a stripped down version of windows. There are some versions of windows floating around already pre-stripped like TinyXP, although technically it's illegal.

Edit: Also turning off the paging file will save you another few seconds of boot time as well.

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 12:31 PM

Yeah I have looked into TinyXP... was kind of waiting to complete my hardware installs before I went further. Think that's now actually. Just ran the boot optimizations and a couple others from TuneXP. No impact at all on cold boot time or resume. Oh well.

btw my times included loading my front end app.... so time to usefulness ithe car. I can live with it, but will keep trying.

Machinehead · 07-08-2008, 01:56 PM

What are you running as front end? I'm using RoadRunner, it only adds about 5 seconds.

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 01:59 PM

yep roadrunner w/DFx skin.... it doesn't take long... but resume hangs until I touch the screen for some reason... maybe the logging from bootvis will help figure out what's happening. Hibernate works fine, but takes way too long to resume.

Are you using dual boot w/bootcamp or did you install just XP? I assume an XP only install still uses the "virtual bios"

Machinehead · 07-08-2008, 02:05 PM

Cold boot has a lot less issues than resuming from hibernate, at least from my experience.

I'm just using XP, OSX is a waste of space for me. And yes it still uses the virtual bios, otherwise known as EFI.

NeonDev · 07-08-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Are you using dual boot w/bootcamp or did you install just XP? I assume an XP only install still uses the "virtual bios"

a mini has no BIOS chip so yes XP only still has to use the BIOS emulation supplied by the EFI

EDIT: Machinehead you beat me!

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 02:11 PM

Ok so for the moment I'm going to be lazy and keep asking (rather than searching). I originally installed OSX/bootcamp and XP both because I was going to experiment with which I liked better.... but now...I'm going to stick with windows since what I want it to do is working great (except for boot time). Can I remove OSX, and re-size windows partition without doing a total re-install? I tried using... oh I forget.. some windows partition tool and it wouldn't let me re-size the OSX partition.

Related question.... is the XP only install a different boot process than bootcamp?

Machinehead · 07-08-2008, 02:16 PM

I assume you could use partition magic or something of that sort on the Windows side, but I'm not certain.

If you want to start over, you can boot off an XP CD and off you go. Alt/Option to get the boot menu up in EFI.

TeamRSX · 07-08-2008, 02:18 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Dave323Ci

Ok so for the moment I'm going to be lazy and keep asking (rather than searching). I originally installed OSX/bootcamp and XP both because I was going to experiment with which I liked better.... but now...I'm going to stick with windows since what I want it to do is working great (except for boot time). Can I remove OSX, and re-size windows partition without doing a total re-install? I tried using... oh I forget.. some windows partition tool and it wouldn't let me re-size the OSX partition.

Related question.... is the XP only install a different boot process than bootcamp?

I dont have a mac mini, but my boot time for xp from a cold boot is 27secs. Search youtube and the internet and you will get some video tutorials. There are a few tricks you can do to modify some of the values in the registry.

Dave323Ci · 07-08-2008, 02:28 PM

Thanks Guys... I may try a re-install. Got a list of stuff to try now... Hope the many hours I burn trying to speed up my boot are offset by the seconds I gain

miztahsparklez · 07-11-2008, 01:07 PM

When I installed xp only on my mini, i got the folder icon with a ? on it for a couple seconds for actually booting windows. I'll have to check again but im pretty sure having osx loaded didnt make things any slower than when i had only xp. I ended up installing osx again to get rid of that folder from showing.

NeonDev · 07-11-2008, 03:54 PM

that icon shows when the EFI can't find your selected startup disk/partition. It then searches for others and if it finds one it boots from it. If you set the mini to XP as the boot disk then you won't get that icon while it looks for a bootable volume. I suspect you had the startup disk set to OS X before nuking the OS X partition.

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