Resolved After Partitioning, XP Loads Slow...

Yesterday I partitioned a 1t hard drive into 2 drives (D and E) with no problems through Windows Disk Management. Both drives formatted with no problem aswell, and both show as being Healthy.

When I rebooted all was well, the system started normally. However while I was moving the files back onto the D drive from my C drive, 1 file had a problem and seemed to freeze about half way through copying. Because of this I had no choice but to reboot the computer, because even trying to cancel the file copy would not work.

When I rebooted, Windows booted very slow. The computer does boot normally, but when it gets to the "Windows" screen (the one with the blue bar) it takes forever and even appears to freeze for about 15 - 20 seconds. After approx 2 - 3 minutes it finally gets to the Logon screen and from that point it loads normally. Once at the desktop, in either of the 2 accounts on this computer everything works just as it should.

The computer is NOT connected to the internet, but does have a modem installed. When creating the partition etc the computer was not online, so I know there is no spyware/malware/virus's on this computer. Although there is spybot, and MicroSoft Security installed.

I have disable everything to see if something in the startup could be affecting the loading, but it made no difference.

Now I'm wonder if during the file copying (from C to D) could the boot records or something get damaged, and would try booting to the Recovery Console and executing the command fixboot and/or fixmbr be of any help.

Like I said, there are 2 accounts on this computer and once I get into either, everything works fine. It's just the loading that now seems to take forever. I can make a coffee faster then Windows loads.

Any idea's.

BTW, it is Windows XP, with ALL updates and service pack 3 installed.
All drives have been checked for errors, and none were found.

 

Hi A&O,

We may need some more information...

Please enter your System Details. It helps us in answering your questions!

How did you partition the D/E drive (disk manager or other software)?

It's unlikely your MBR is messed up. How are the drives connected? Make & models of both drives would be useful.

I've found network devices (with no network connection) can delay bootups on XP. If you have no intentions of netowrking the system have you tried disabling any onboard NIC's (wired and wireless) in the BIOS, or starting the system up connected to a network?

 

Wildfire, I don't believe a network connection makes a difference at all, simply because everything ran fine up until after I partitioned my D drive.. I partitioned the drive through Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management just as I have always done.
Once the drive was partitioned and formatted, there still was not a problem. I rebooted after creating the new drives and everything was running as it should. But when I began copying my backed up files from C to the new D drive.., thats where the problem began.

Both drives are SATA drives, with drive C being a Seagate: ST3500418AS - 500 GB and drive D/E being a Western Digital: WDCWD10EADS-00P8B0 - 1000.2 GB


Specs are:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600.6055
System Model A32GV11C
CPU AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+
Physical Memory 2048 MB Total (DDR PC3200)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS
Seagate: ST3500418AS - 500 GB
Western Digital: WDCWD10EADS-00P8B0 - 1000.2 GB

 

Fair enough, I still think it's worth a shot disabling network devices though if they aren't connected to anything.

Failing that and/or additionally check the drives using the relevant manufacturers disk diagnostics...

Seagate

Western Digital

 

Start by running chkdsk /f on ALL your partitions.

 

Wildfire, diagnostics from both manufacturers have now been run on both disks.. and no problems were found.

rsinfo, chkdsk /f has also been run on all partitions, and no problems..

TonyT, the file was a text file about 271 KB.. (just a file created by me for notes..)

 

I'm marking this thread as "Resolved" because I have come to find out that there is no actual working fix.. MicroSoft did issue a fix for this problem, but after trying it, and looking for more info about it, I found the fix doesn't work...

 

TonyT, I will try what you suggested...

BTW, I also seem to remember something similiar happening a few ago when installed a game called "Need For Speed" and another person had the same problem here.. After installing game starting Windows reacted the same way... but those posts are long gone.. and if I remember correctly, someone posted a "fix" for it... and it did work... I think it had something to do with the Kernel file... but I may be wrong...

Thanks TonyT... I'll let you know what happens...