Windows 7: "Welcome" screen takes a long time

Hello all,

So I was just wondering if this is a problem inherent to Windows 7, or if I'm having bad luck with my hard drives.

I popped in a new Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB hard drive, expecting start up to go a lot faster than with my old drive. The first start up was extremely quick, but startup times seem to be getting slower and slower as each day goes by. The "Welcome" screen takes at least 10 seconds, and another 15 seconds or more go by until my desktop is fully operational. Those 15 seconds include waiting for the connection to the internet to go through, and for Rainmeter, ObjectDock, and Fences to finish loading.

In conclusion, the startup isn't that much faster compared to my older seagate drive that I had Windows 7 installed on previously. My specs are below:

AMD Phenom II X4 555 Black Edition
Biostar TA785GE motherboard
4 GB OCZ 3P1333LV4GK RAM
Sony Optiarc DVD drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Thank you all in advance!!

Was the older Seagate a 7200 RPM drive as well? With a SATA2 interface? You'll probably see almost no perceptible difference in performance if that's the case. Extra capacity does not equal increased speed.

LOL i like your opinion about overclocking haha. Have you done it? I wanted to give it a try, but was afraid to go the "stupid" route

Yeah, the Seagate was a 7200 RPM. Both were 1 TB, but the reviews for the F3 said that it was one of the fastest of non-SSD hard drives.

Using a solid color background for your desktop by any chance?

Yeah, my machine usually runs about 20% over spec, but I'm taking it easy with the new build.

Unless it's a SATA3 and your board supports it, there's probably not going to be a lot of difference.

I heard about that. Unfortunately, my desktop is a slideshow of Batman pictures. I will attach the screen shot of the boottime. It turns out I require 73.7 seconds to boot =/

Darn, that's too bad. Thanks for the help then!!

Whoa guess what? I turned off Spybot from the startup programs, and now I shaved off 20 seconds O.O! That's insane.... Any ideas to make it any quicker?

That's not a horribly bad time - 73 seconds. May just come down to how many/what you have that loads during startup slowing you down a bit. i.e, several programs in startup. - msconfig.

Edit

There you go.

Optimize Windows 7

I only allow AV and gadgets into msconfig>Startup. Settle for what you absolutely have to have running all the time. Others are freeloaders.

Use a lightweight free AV like MS Security Essentials.

Study the Performance log on Advanced Tools page accessed by clicking WEI score at Computer>Properties. It will log services, drivers and apps that slow down Startup and Shutdown. Work through other errors in Event VIewer>Admin view by googling text and ID#.