Slow Black Welome Screen

Hello.

This is really more an annoyance than an immediate issue. Here's what happens:

On startup, the black welcome screen for Win7 stays black for about 1-2 minutes before the animated Windows logo appears. The "Welcome To Windows" text does appear at the bottom normally for this delay, but nothing happens beyond that over the delay. It should be noted that, while this delay happens repeatedly and constantly, I have had very few problems otherwise with either the machine or Win7.

On the fresh install when I first got this machine, it took about 30-45 seconds to get through this screen, but I have recently added a second external hard drive to my system, and it seems to have slowed to the 1-2 minute delay I am now experiencing. The first external hard drive I added didn't seem to slow anything down any more when I connected it, so I am skeptical that it is a cause.

Any help would be appreciated.

Here are my specs in case they don't show up in my profile:

Intel i3-2120 @ 3GHz (Dual)
Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3 Motherboard
4GB DDR3 Memory
Asus Radeon HD 6450 Video Card
WD WD5002AALX 500GB 7200RPM SATA HHD
WD Elements 1GB External USB HDD (Old)
WD Elements 2GB External USB HDD (New)
Win7 Ultimate 32-bit

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
with all drives connected.

Next enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) then Check for WIndows Updates, run all Important and Optional Updates except for Bing and Essentials if you don't want those. After requested reboot go back and keep Checking for Updates until there are no more.

I removed my reply as it was for a different question.

gregrocker said:

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
with all drives connected.

Next enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) then Check for WIndows Updates, run all Important and Optional Updates except for Bing and Essentials if you don't want those. After requested reboot go back and keep Checking for Updates until there are no more.

The image is attached.

All important updates are installed and I make sure to keep up with the most recent drivers for my hardware.

Thanks for any further help you can provide.

But are you using the drivers WIn7 wants, after enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3)? This is a driver-complete OS which is not like XP for drivers.

All Important and Optional Updates should also be installed (except Bing) as many performance updates and drivers come in under Optional.

Run a few Startup Repairs to see if it has any boot issues or other to sort.

If not power down to unplug the other HD's and all other peripherals except mouse and keyboard, see if problem abates. If so add each back to test which is causing the delay.

Otherwise work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7