Need to revert back to a normal Windows 7 boot

I have had Windows 7 installed on an SSD for a long time. I am used to a fast boot up. I installed Windows 8.1 as a dual boot on a partition of my HDD. I thought I would on occasion get familiar with Windows 8, After the installation I noticed and expected a longer boot time because the new OS is on the mechanical drive. The screen is black with increasing dots going across the top as if loading information. Then the screen goes through a few black to a lite-black, back and forth changes and then finally to the screen that you choose the OS you wish to boot screen. I use Windows 7 95% of the time and really haven't put forth the effort yet (as planned) to become familiar with Win 8. I have become quite annoyed with the long boot process. I plan to reinstall Win 8 in VMware so I can return to the boot time being SSD quick. I deleted Windows 8 using msconfig. Now when my PC starts it goes straight to Windows 7 desktop however the long loading still occurs increasing dots across the screen . I suppose you can see by now what my question will be. How do I get my PC to boot they way it used to. Thank you for your replies.

Marshall

I notice you have a Gigabyte board.

Does this sequence of dots last just about 20 seconds?

yes 20 to 30 seconds

Check your BIOS and be sure that the hard drive is set to be the first boot device.

My Gigabyte board was set to boot from the DVD first, hard drive second.

If the DVD drive was empty, it would still search for a disk in the DVD drive for 20 seconds or so.

Solution was to change the setting in the BIOS.

That fixed it! WooHoo!, Thank you very much. I downloaded Windows 8 from MS and installed it via usb drive. At that time I had to change boot priority to usb. I had never changed it back. Working great now!

Thanks again,
Marshall