How fast should an SSD boot time be?

Patrick Planck · 03 Aug 2015

I just recently upgraded that hard drive on my laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate to an SSD. I also clean installed everything on that brand new SSD, and did not use any sort of data migration. I also installed with UEFI as opposed to Legacy. I have definitely noticed a significantly improved performance. My old HDD drive was slowing down my otherwise decent laptop. On my old HDD, I timed my boot time at around 3 minutes. Now with a brand new SSD, clean installed with Windows, I get a boot time of 30 seconds. This is the total amount of time that passes from when I press the power button until the desktop appears. I am definitely pleased with this fast boot time. However, after searching the web and even watching some youtube videos about windows 7 ssd boot times, it seems to me that a Windows 7 SSD boot time should be closer to 20 seconds. So, for those who have a very fast SSD boot time, what do I or should I do in order to further improve my boot time?? I'd like to get it down close to 20 seconds or even less if possible. Thanks.

ThrashZone · 03 Aug 2015

Hi,
Sounds about right possibly a little more depends on how long it takes to enter a password :)
Show us your SSD performance 2

Layback Bear · 03 Aug 2015

I would say that 30 sec is about normal for a ssd.

All systems are different in many ways. Playing the game of who can boot the fastest is just that, a game. A extra 10 seconds in ones life when booting is about the time it takes to take a good slug of coffee. No big deal.

Their are things you can do in this tutorial by Brink that can help. You won't need to do all of the suggestions. When your system works as it should I wouldn't recommend going crazy trying to get the 10 sec.

Optimize Windows 7

AddRAM · 03 Aug 2015

Even 30 seconds is too long, should take no more then 10, not including the bios.

Make sure you have any splash screens for the bios disabled and set your diagnostic screen timeout to the lowest amount usually 1 to 3 seconds is plenty of time.

carwiz · 03 Aug 2015

My boot time was around 20 seconds until I added a TV card. (Desktop) The drivers for it initialize and test the card so that added another 20 seconds. You need to determine what is in Start Up and Services on your laptop. More times than not, OEM Laptops are bloated with utilities and monitors that run at startup even if they aren't used. The same goes for other software you add to you system. Some AV software is slow to start too. If you don't have a bloated startup, post a text copy of one of your Boot Event Entries and I'll take a look. It can sometimes point to an area that's slow.

Added:
Also, there are some services that you can set to delayed start to improve "time to desktop". And if it wasn't already turned off with the Windows install to SSD, you can disable Prefetch and SuperFetch.

ranchomirage · 04 Aug 2015

15 secs

UsernameIssues · 04 Aug 2015

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Sounds about right possibly a little more depends on how long it takes to enter a password :)
Show us your SSD performance 2

I agree... check out that thread.

Then look at this tutorial:
Restart Time

Layback Bear · 05 Aug 2015

Boot time to me means from when I push the Start button on the case until I can use the computer from the desktop.

UsernameIssues · 05 Aug 2015

Layback Bear said:

Boot time to me means from when I push the Start button on the case until I can use the computer from the desktop.

Maybe that can be measured too - to an extent. Post #38 seems to have code that does not include the shutdown time. I've not tested that code. Or the OP can use a watch/clock

GokAy · 05 Aug 2015

My laptop with a slower SSD boots to desktop in 15 seconds tops (factory bloated too, never minded to clean anything since it was already fast

).

Desktop with Samsung 850 Pro, boots in about 45 seconds to welcome screen (20 seconds is all the BIOS stuff, need to find hard disks on 2 controllers etc), and the 2nd GPU added 5 seconds or so. Desktop is almost instantly usable after entering password, couple of seconds.