SSD slow boot times

[allday165]

I have a 128 gig Vertex 4 that recently started taking about a minute to boot up when it normally takes under 10 seconds. It was paired with a 1TB (half-filled) Spinpoint I was using for data. On black friday, I got a good deal on an OCZ Agility 4 and replaced it with my Spinpoint to see if it was the problem. It wasn't the problem; it still takes way longer than it should to boot up. Both SSD's are in AHCI mode. If you have any questions, just ask. Thanks for the help.

 

[logicearth]

Are you sure the problem is hardware and not software?

 

[allday165]

I actually thought that after I bought the Agility, but I still wanted to keep it anyway because my HDD would freeze for 7-8 seconds when I tried to load something from it. But if it's a software problem, I have no idea would the problem is. I only have 33 GB of data on my boot drive, if that matters.

 

[whs]

Post a picture of your Disk Management. Chances are your bootmgr landed on the HDD.

 

[allday165]

Here it is

 

[whs]

The bootmgr is in the right place. Did you enable AHCI in Windows too http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

 

[allday165]

Yes, I did.

 

[whs]

Is the SSD properly aligned.

If you want to verify the alignment, you use the following commands.

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n
List partition

Now you should see a result like this.

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 59 GB 1024 KB - but 64KB or any number divisible by 4 is also good

The offset (in KBs) has to be divisible by 4.

 

[allday165]

Disk 0 Partition 1 100 MB 1024 KB
Disk 0 Partition 2 119 GB 101 MB

 

[whs]

That looks good. Now I am out of ideas regarding the SSD.

The only other thing you can do is to track your boot. First have a look into the event viewer and see what that says.

Then you can also use Soluto to get a detailed view. You should know that some people had problems with Soluto - but it worked fine for me. So it's at your own risk. But if Lifehacker sponsors it, it should be OK.

 

[allday165]

Alright, thanks for the help.

 

[allday165]

By the way, you helped me answer the previous question I had when my Vertex 4 kept failing. You think it could be the SSD itself? I had to stop using Windows update because that is what was causing the SSD to fail. I would go to download something like a malicious software tool from Windows and it would BSOD instantly.

 

[whs]

From what you describe, there may be a problem with write operations. You can run the chkdsk to see whether there is a problem. I would also take a peek into the Event Viewer.

 

[pbcopter]

Since you have the Agility SSD, I would image the vertex 4 and restore it to the Agility.
Then remove the Vertex and check the boot, etc using the Agility.
That would eliminate the software.