Windows 7 takes 20-30 + minutes to boot

[Butters]

Hello everybody. I'm setting up a Dell PowerEdge T105 Server for my boss to start using as a workstation, and I'm having some issues with Windows 7. Specifically, the thing takes over 20-30 minutes to boot. From what he's told me, this is a fairly new installation of Windows 7, and the only thing that's really installed on here is Microsoft Office 2007. The computer seems to run fine aside from this though. I didn't see anything related to boot/kernel errors in the Event Viewer, and it takes just as long to boot into recovery mode (Repair Your Computer). Any help on how to fix this would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You might show us what you have going on
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[Mellon Head]

Could be a bad hard disk. I fixed a laptop recently with the same issue. It was the hard disk.

 

[Butters]

Here's a screenshot of the Disk Management window.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and thanks
Was it a new hard drive and if so exactly what brand model ?
Looks pretty small what ever it is :/

 

[Butters]

Actually, I think the issue is with the machine itself. We decided to see if the original hard drive (with Windows Server 2003) would be any faster, but it also seemed to take forever. Furthermore, I was able to boot to recovery mode on the Win7 drive in less than 30 seconds when I put it in another computer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
See if you can get into the bios and optimize defaults and save and exit.
Also see if the cpu cooler is clean under the fan.

 

[maxseven]

You might also run Sysinternals Process Explorer and select Start Time in the Process Performance tab, and sort on that looking-down the list of process Start Times, to see if there's a long gap between one process and another at startup.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Butters,
can you run this
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012

What im interested in is whether an Enterprise version of anything is installed, it could quite merrily end up in a loop, and could you also post start-up items from system config.

Roy

 

[Butters]

Thanks for the responses. I kind of doubt it has something to do with startup items, as it takes just as long to boot to recovery mode. That said, I do believe it has an Enterprise version of Office 2007, but I'm not sure that it starts up with the system. I'll take another look at it when I get the chance, and I'll try that MGA program when I do (just in case that actually IS the issue).

I'll also look into cleaning it. I'm not sure how dirty everything is, but one thing we're out of is air spray cans (my boss said he'll get more when he gets the chance).

As for the BIOS, there was no 'set to default' setting, probably because this is a server tower. I'm not sure what settings I could change to improve startup times.

One of the technicians here insists that there's nothing we could do to improve the startup time, but I haven't lost hope yet. I'll see what I can do. One idea I have is to disable the GUI boot and to display the OS Boot Information (like booting into Safe Mode) so I can get an idea of where exactly it hangs.

 

[Butters]

Sorry to bump kind of an old thread, but I do have an update with this. I just did a clean-install of Windows Server 2003 on a different hard drive on this machine and it boots in seconds. So this is clearly some sort of software issue. I did try to disable the GUI boot on Windows 7, and it hangs on CLASSPNP.SYS, which is the last driver it loads. I couldn't find any information on this delaying boot times though.

 

[AddRAM]

How could you know that if you used a different drive ?

And Server 2003 is basically XP, not Windows 7.

How can you troubleshoot your issue if you go to a totally different OS on a totally different drive ?

 

[Butters]

Because it was all the same booting from the Win7 DVD. So I'm sure it's a Windows 7 issue. Anyway, I think he'll just end up using a different PC after all. I think this is more trouble than it's worth at this point.

 

[bawldiggle]

Recently my (spare) laptop (obviously not a server) was taking 7 minutes to boot (Win7 Home premium)

Startup is at a minimum number of apps.
Disc check OK
Disc Cleanup (Windows)
C: drive (only partition) is 14% used (500GB HDD)
After Windows repair, no improvement
Windows defrag, no improvement
"MyDefrag", no improvement

Free Defraggler has been a post-it note on my wall for a few years so decided to give it a shot
- miraculous improvement down to 52 seconds to boot
- next experiment is a boot defrag with Defragger just to see how well it works

Some "people" are not keen on defrag, but I have kept 4 rigs and (now) 2 laptops up and running for years with defragging as required.
- originally with the "MyDefrag" precursor (JKDefrag) and then "MyDefrag"
- and now I am sold on Defraggler

One rig (2003) WinXP SP2 has been running with AutoCad with about a handful of defrags in these past 13 years.
- permanently offline has helped too

My current experience with Piriforms "Defraggler" (it's free) has been very impressive.

Just a thought

 

[Butters]

I want to thank everyone for all the helpful thoughts/ideas, but we ended up selling the system with Windows Server 2003 installed on it. So even if I wanted to try and troubleshoot this further, I am no longer able to. Once again, thanks for the suggestions.