Fresh Windows 7 install takes forever to start booting after POST

I had Windows 7 installed for years and then, opposite of my intention, it was upgraded to 10 somehow. This was about a year ago.

I've been dealing with 10 just because I've been too lazy to wipe and downgrade. Suddenly yesterday, my PC refused to boot 10. It gave me the black and white screen saying that Windows failed to boot and told me to insert my disc to attempt a repair. Obviously my Windows 7 disc did not do anything to repair the somehow botched Windows 10 installation.

I figured this was a perfect opportunity to wipe my OS drive clean and reinstall Windows 7.

My issue is that my computer powers up and POSTs fine, but I am stuck with a black screen with a blinking underscore for several minutes before Windows 7 begins to boot. I tried resetting my BIOS to optimized defaults, but this did nothing to remedy the issue. I also tried disconnecting my non-OS drives to see if they were causing it...nothing changed.

I'm running a RAID0 of two Samsung 840 PROs. Never had an issue booting Win7 or 10 prior to this...

Once booted, Windows runs completely fast, smooth, and normal.

RolandJS said:

Which post: UEFI or BIOS? Fast Boot: on? off? Two internal hard-drives? The windows 7 install/repair came with this computer, correct?

Oh boy, now I don't know the difference between UEFI and BIOS. Here's what I see normally:
1. ASUS BIOS screen letting me press DEL or F2 to enter setup
2. Intel RAID screen showing me the drives that are connected to the RAID controller
3. The same ASUS BIOS screen from step one for just a second or two
4. Windows begins booting

The extremely long several minute pause happens between steps 3 and 4. Currently 1 through 3 still occur with normal timing.

I have a total of 5 internal hard drives:
2x Samsung 840 Pro 128gb in RAID0
WD Blue 500gb
WD Blue 320gb
WD Blue 160gb

Fast boot is enabled.

It's a custom build. I have a Windows 7 disc that I use for my builds.

EDIT:

And to clarify on what the pause looks like. I see the blinking underscore for a few minutes. Then the Starting Windows screen comes up, but with no logo animation above it, for a few minutes. All this happens with ZERO HDD activity. Then the HDD activity light starts flashing, the logo animation begins, and the Windows boots quickly.

Megahertz07 said:

Did you checked BIOS settings?
Did you already installed win 7 on the RAID 0?
Did you detached the other disks before installing Win 7?
Did you installed as UEFI or Legacy?

BIOS settings were checked...even set them back to "optimized defaults".

Yes, Win7 has been installed on the RAID0.

I did not try detaching other drives prior to the install.

I'm not sure how to answer the UEFI or Legacy question. What does that mean? I just put in the disc and followed the prompts.

Thanks for your response.

I've edited my last post.
Are you sure Win7 has been installed on the RAID0? If you set BIOS to defaults you probably installed as AHCI not as RAID as the AHCI is the default.
You should ALWAYS detach other disks as Windows sometimes install the boot loader on these disks and the OS on the target disk.
Did you used a DVD or a USB flash disk?
UEFI is the new kind of BIOS to replace the old one (Legacy). It has many advantages on new hardware as yours.

If you want to have it done right, follow my instructions on the previous post.

Megahertz07 said:

I've edited my last post.
Are you sure Win7 has been installed on the RAID0? If you set BIOS to defaults you probably installed as AHCI not as RAID as the AHCI is the default.
You should ALWAYS detach other disks as Windows sometimes install the boot loader on these disks and the OS on the target disk.
Did you used a DVD or a USB flash disk?
UEFI is the new kind of BIOS to replace the old one (Legacy). It has many advantages on new hardware as yours.

If you want to have it done right, follow my instructions on the previous post.

I'll give all of your steps a try. Thank you!

So I installed on the RAID before resetting the bios. Once I reset the bios, the system wouldn't boot because it got reset to AHCI. I had to reset to RAID to get the PC to boot back up, but still have the extremely long boot problem.

I'm installing using a DVD. I feel like your steps should make things right for me. We'll see!

AddRAM said:

Go into the Bios and set the Sata mode to AHCI, you do not need to use Raid.

Really? As long as I create the array, will the SSDs still stay RAIDed even if I move the setting back to AHCI?

AddRAM said:

No, they won`t.

You don`t need Raid using a SSD.

Well I guess I screwed up a few years ago when I decided to purchase two smaller SSDs instead of one large one. There's no performance benefit like with HDDs?