Long pause during boot since update to 20H2

Would really value some help with resolving this issue, i've tried lots of different things and im now out of ideas.

Problem: Desktop PC , Windows 10 Pro, Intel i7 MSI motherboard, C drive is 1Tb SSD. After the PC updated to the latest windows version 20H2, the boot process pauses for approx 2 minutes and then continues. The pause comes a few seconds after the Windows logo appears, during the pause there is ZERO disk activity and the spinning dots keep moving but very slowly, perhaps 1 tick round every 5 secs. When the pause has completed, the boot process continues normally and the PC works fine.

Things I have tried:

1. Using System Restore to restore to prior to the update - cant do this as the update appears to have removed all the restore points
2. Restoring via Acronis True Image - cant do this as it turns out there is an issue with the backups - everyone that i have taken in the last 10 months , fails during the restore with an index corrupted message (even though all the back ups were taken succesfully and the back ups validate ok)
3. Used 'uninstall update' from Windows update to remove the 20H2 update and a couple of security updates that went in at the same time - this made no difference
4. Booted in Safe Mode - same problem occurs
5. Did a clean install using the latest Windows 10 media creation tool (so this included the 20H2 update) on another internal drive , freshly formatted, and booted from that - this works fine, PC booted normally
6.Cloned the current c:drive to the internal drive that worked fine with the clean install - the problem returns.
7. Tried chkdsk - no issues
8. Tried the windows startup repair - booting from usb and from the windows udpate/recovery/startup - no problems found and problem still exists
9. Tried fixing the MBR with the various bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot commands - these made no difference

So I cant restore to a previous workig time, ive proved the hardware is fine, with the clean install, ive proved that windows 10 and indeed the 20H2 update work ok on my pc with the clean install, but i havent been able to fix the problem withe my existing data. I know a solution would be to start again from scratch with a clean install and reinstalling all my software and data files, but thats days of work i desperately want to avoid if possible.

Any thoughts on other things i can try, gratefully received.

Ztruker said:

any of you remember the name?

It's @zinou

cliveg said:

Would really value some help with resolving this issue, i've tried lots of different things and im now out of ideas.

Problem: Desktop PC , Windows 10 Pro, Intel i7 MSI motherboard, C drive is 1Tb SSD. After the PC updated to the latest windows version 20H2, the boot process pauses for approx 2 minutes and then continues. The pause comes a few seconds after the Windows logo appears, during the pause there is ZERO disk activity and the spinning dots keep moving but very slowly, perhaps 1 tick round every 5 secs. When the pause has completed, the boot process continues normally and the PC works fine.

Things I have tried:

1. Using System Restore to restore to prior to the update - cant do this as the update appears to have removed all the restore points
2. Restoring via Acronis True Image - cant do this as it turns out there is an issue with the backups - everyone that i have taken in the last 10 months , fails during the restore with an index corrupted message (even though all the back ups were taken succesfully and the back ups validate ok)
3. Used 'uninstall update' from Windows update to remove the 20H2 update and a couple of security updates that went in at the same time - this made no difference
4. Booted in Safe Mode - same problem occurs
5. Did a clean install using the latest Windows 10 media creation tool (so this included the 20H2 update) on another internal drive , freshly formatted, and booted from that - this works fine, PC booted normally
6.Cloned the current c:drive to the internal drive that worked fine with the clean install - the problem returns.
7. Tried chkdsk - no issues
8. Tried the windows startup repair - booting from usb and from the windows udpate/recovery/startup - no problems found and problem still exists
9. Tried fixing the MBR with the various bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot commands - these made no difference

So I cant restore to a previous workig time, ive proved the hardware is fine, with the clean install, ive proved that windows 10 and indeed the 20H2 update work ok on my pc with the clean install, but i havent been able to fix the problem withe my existing data. I know a solution would be to start again from scratch with a clean install and reinstalling all my software and data files, but thats days of work i desperately want to avoid if possible.

Any thoughts on other things i can try, gratefully received.

hello @cliveg and welcome to TF ,

If you have Windows "fast startup" enabled, please disable it and check for improvement.

Also try booting into safe mode for comparison.

Create a new backup local test account and see how that performs for comparison.

dalchina said:

Hi, slow booting following the upgrade is not uncommon and is a symptom some have reported.
E.g.
Microsoft confirms Windows 10 slow boot issue due to KB4559309 - MSPoweruser


Some reports relate this to an update related to adding the new Edge browser.

How did you upgrade to 20H2 and from which build?

System Restore cannot be used to reverse upgrades. It is not designed for that.

You have 10 days by default to reverse the upgrade. ('Go back to the previous build'). This can be extended to 60. Tutorials available.

It is possible to analyse boot issues on a technical basis with the Windows Performance Analyser - free from MS. This produces detailed graphical representations of events. Non-trivial and daunting for first-time users. Examples of screenshots of this in use if you search the forum.

Similar thread:
Slow booting up - Windows stuck on black screen for several seconds

Thanks - I'll give the WPA a go
I dont think this is like the slow boot issue you mentioned as everything is normal except for the 'pause' in the boot process where there is zero disk activity for 1 minute and 45 seconds - same amount of time every time

The 20H2 update went through the normal windows update - but I did uninstall this update and currently the version of Windows shows as Windows 10 Pro version 2004. So the problem first occured after the update but I dont believe is strictly related to the update itself as I have removed it and the problem still exists and I have also done a clean install on a second internal drive (hard disk rather the ssd) which includes the 20H2 and it boots without a problem. So the process of doing the update caused the problem not the content of the update itself.

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steve108 said:

hello @cliveg and welcome to TF ,

If you have Windows "fast startup" enabled, please disable it and check for improvement.

Also try booting into safe mode for comparison.

Create a new backup local test account and see how that performs for comparison.

Thanks for the suggestions - fast startup is disabled and booting into safe mode exhibits exactly the same problem

Not sure what you mean by 'Create a new backup local test account ' ?

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This is what I got from my WPA trace - first time I've ever used this tool so there is much I dont understand, but what I can see is that every graph starts at 100 secs in - this correlates exactly with the 100 sec pause I get at the start of the boot - just after the Windows logo appears. The only events I see before 100secs are a handful of disklo events in the generic events table. No idea what these are, but it sort of fits with what I see which is zero disk activity for 100 secs, even in safe mode