Windows boots fast with just SSD but much slower with SSD plus HDD  

Why is it that my computer boots in seconds with just an SSD where Windows is installed but about 4X as long when I attach a secondary hard drive?

Thanks!

Are any of the boot files or programs that run at start on the spinner?

No. The secondary hard drive is used for storage and music files.

Check your bios, Make sure the SSD is top of the list and the HDD is lower. Also ensure ACHI is enabled.

Another thing to check is the page file, check when you have the drive in that it isn't for whatever reason trying to use your HDD instead of your SSD.

IndustryStandrd said:

Check your bios, Make sure the SSD is top of the list and the HDD is lower. Also ensure ACHI is enabled.
Another thing to check is the page file, check when you have the drive in that it isn't for whatever reason trying to use your HDD instead of your SSD.

Yes, the SSD is set at the top and is connected to the 0 SATA port on the motherboard. ACHI is enabled in the bios and in the Samsung software. The pagefile is on my OS drive but how would I ever know if the OS is looking on my HDD?

What boot-up speed do you get exactly? HDDs will always add higher startups regardless of boot order. Going from 15 to 20 seconds is not uncommon depending on motherboard and SATA interface. Or does it actually increase your boot from 10 to 40 seconds? Because that's not normal. Have you checked your SATA connection, cable, controller Interface, firmware? Maybe tried a different port? Check its SMART info to see if something is wrong with it.

Faith said:

What boot-up speed do you get exactly? HDDs will always add higher startups regardless of boot order. Going from 15 to 20 seconds is not uncommon depending on motherboard and SATA interface. Or does it actually increase your boot from 10 to 40 seconds? Because that's not normal. Have you checked your SATA connection, cable, controller Interface, firmware? Maybe tried a different port? Check its SMART info to see if something is wrong with it.

I replaced the hard drive with a spare and I made several changes in the BIOS and it's usually booting much quicker but intermittently takes 3x to 4x longer. The firmware is the latest and the SMART info checks good on both drives. The connections and hardware would seem to be unlikely given the improvements that I noted. I have a main computer that is identical to the above computer but it has two SSD's and it too intermittently takes 4x longer (seems to consistently be on every 6th or 7th boot). The Event Viewer seems normal even on the slower boots. I experimented with Windows adk for several hours but I'm too inexperienced to make sense of it, plus the Performance Kit seems to measure the reboot only, but my slower boot times only occur during a fresh startup.

Eagle51 said:

Hey socklosk,
Have you tried turning off Fast Startup and disabling the Super Fetch Service, which you don't really need with SSD drives. If you don't use Hibernate you can turn if off, which also turns of Fast Startup.


Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials
Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials
Enable or Disable SuperFetch in Windows | Windows 10 Tutorials

Note: In Win10 1809 the Super Fetch Service is called SysMain

Disabling Hibernate was the first thing I did. Samsung Magician has SuperFetch disabled.