13 min to desktop, can anyone help speed it up?

dalchina · 10 Mar 2017

Getting closer. I don't know if you're using USB2 or 3- from your figures I guess USB2.

You can try a different disk on the same (apparently slower) USB connection and on a different one to get some figures to compare with those you've posted.

Now you can see a clear difference -a process of elimination should help you identify USB port/ cable / drive.

I would recommend you only have one USB disk connected at a time while you do this.

Note: clarity in terms: and a useful tip you may already know:
Booted with the M: Drive connected to a different USB lead to the PC (Previously connected to H: Drive)

This is rather difficult to interpret.Why?1. As you know, when a drive is connected to a PC it is normally allocated the next available letter. Without the user taking specific action, external drives are not allocated a fixed letter, nor are particular USB ports.
2. It is possible to effectively assign an external drive a fixed drive letter- provided the assigned drive letter is not in use when that drive is next connected. This is done in Disk Management by reallocating the drive to a specific letter- say W - far from any letters likely to be used by plugging in devices randomly. This is very useful for a backup drive which is connected and disconnected, for example.

Assuming you have not used the method in (2) I therefore interpret your statement as possibly meaning:
I booted with the suspect USB drive allocated the drive letter M connected using a different USB lead which had previously been used for the drive allocated drive letter H.
or
I booted with the suspect USB drive allocated the drive letter M connected using a different USB lead. The M drive had previously been connected to the USB port to which the drive allocated drive letter H had been connected.

swarfega · 10 Mar 2017

One thing you can do is right click on taskbar and select task manager. Click on the startup tab. Please list all the enabled entries.

Trapper · 10 Mar 2017

Getting closer. I don't know if you're using USB2 or 3- from your figures I guess USB2.

Correct.

Assuming you have not used the method in (2) I therefore interpret your statement as possibly meaning:
I booted with the suspect USB drive allocated the drive letter M connected using a different USB lead which had previously been used for the drive allocated drive letter H.

Youv'e put that much clearer than I did

. I have selected the drive letters so I know which is which when I come to backup swaps and do not want to get out of sync.

I have yet to try another USB drive connected to the original M lead connected to the original USB port at the rear of the PC.

This morning I booted with only the M drive connected to the original M lead connected to the original USB port at the rear of the PC. this returned a start up time of 1.51min, excellent!
Anyway I ran the CrystalMark on the M drive as above, result showed as below:

13 min to desktop, can anyone help speed it up?-crystalmark-3-m-lead.jpg

I then connected the M drive to a front USB port and connected with the lead from my WD Passport J drive. then ran CrystalMark again, result showed as below:

13 min to desktop, can anyone help speed it up?-crystalmark-4-j-lead-fr-usb.jpg

No idea what the above means, sorry....
Blows my theory about the M drive causing the problem, with a startup today of 1.51min!!

Task Manager startup as below.

13 min to desktop, can anyone help speed it up?-task-ngr-start-up-10-3-17.jpg

Thank you for your help.

jimbo45 · 10 Mar 2017

Hi there

I'd change the 2TB HDD to use GPT rather than the old MBR. Windows is also fussy with a load of HDD's and mixed file systems.

Try also (Disconnect from the net while doing the test) REMOVE ALL A/V (Anti Virus) software and malwarebytes .

Sometimes some of these A/V systems get into a mind of their own and start doing complete scans of HDD's at boot without being prompted or whatever --Macaffee (Mac Aweful) can sometimes be guilty of this.

Sometimes removing or updating A/V software isn't complete and these programs are often hidden deep in the system so not easy to find.

Probably the EASIEST way to test is as follows

1) Backup current PC with Free Macrium -- shouldn't take too long

2) Install brand new W10 - don't bother about entering a key or whatever -- we just need this as a test to check your boot times.

3) apply W10 updates after initial install -- plus any odd special drivers you have - but don't install any other stuff.

4) now Boot W10 -- if boot is fine then you have an issue with your current Windows.

At this point you can either restore your system and continue diagnosing problem or carry on using the freshly installed one.

If Boot still takes a long time - then you've got a hardware problem somewhere so restore your old system and diagnose defective bit of hardware.

DON'T try too many things at once - as you wont know what caused / fixed the problem.

Macrium backup and restore will probably take around 15 - 20 mins for each operation with an SSD - could be around 50 mins or so with standard spinners.

Cheers
jimbo

clam1952 · 10 Mar 2017

According to your motherboard specs you should have USB3, speed differences could be related to the difference between USB2 and USB3 presume the front ports are USB2?

jimbo45 · 10 Mar 2017

clam1952 said:

According to your motherboard specs you should have USB3, speed differences could be related to the difference between USB2 and USB3 presume the front ports are USB2?

Hi there

not sure this should have anything to do with the Boot process though !!!!

Cheers
jimbo

clam1952 · 10 Mar 2017

Probably not but probably does explain the speed difference in Crystal.
I'm thinking it could just be a bad USB connection or lead.

Trapper · 10 Mar 2017

clam1952

Probably not but probably does explain the speed difference in Crystal.
I'm thinking it could just be a bad USB connection or lead.

Pulled the beast out from under the desk, lo and behold the M: 2TB Passport was connected to the USB3 port,

so thanks clam 1952 that probably answers the differences in the Crystal results.

I do not want to do a reinstall, things usually go wrong somewhere along the process and other than the start problem it seems to be fine.

I will amend RoboCopy to use one USB Passport HDD and my WD I: drive for the time being and remove the other external drives and see how things go. I have just rebooted twice again first using the M: drive connected to a USB 2 port (All other external drives disconnected) and start time was 1.min. The second start with M: connected to USB2 and my J: drive Passport connected to the USB3 port was all of 49 seconds. Possibly an Olympic record

.

More testing is in order.

Thank you all for your input and help in sorting my slow startup.
As always the help we receive here: 7 & 10 forums is beyond compliments.

vgchat · 10 Mar 2017

Here's what I would do with that startup list you gave us. Green = enabled. Grey = Disable

Also a virus scan may be in order.

Trapper · 11 Mar 2017

Thanks vgchat, have amended my startup as you have suggested. One question though, as I use Google drive and DropBox (DB as delayed start 30 seconds) as my two main cloud backups and so far not used MS One drive I assume would I need to enable One Drive?