Fresh install of Win XP slow to boot after RAID reconfigured 1

[mabcc]

Hi - I just installed Win XP Pro on a freshly reformatted partition and am having a couple of unexpected problems:

1) it takes about half an hour to boot - the white-on-black horizontal progress bar that appears at the bottom of the screen before the Windows XP logo appears creeps along very slowly;

2) when it's finally booted, my PC runs just fine, although of the familiar Windows icons - Recycling Bin, My Documents, My Computer and My Network Places - only the recycle bin is displayed on the desktop. When I open a window in Explorer, they're all there.

A couple of things to note:

1) This PC was built for me as a file server a couple of years ago and up until now I was running Win 2000 Server on it. I didn't need all the power and functionality of a server so I opted to change my OS to Win XP, which I did. Win 2K Server was running fine before I did the XP install;

2) Before installing the new OS, I reconfigured my RAID card (Promise Tech Fastrack 2000) so that my two 80 gb hd's are in Span mode instead of Mirroring mode as they were previously. The reconfig went off without a hitch, as far as I could tell.

3) Win XP didn't recognize several of my hardware components during the install: my Ethernet adapter; VGA adapter; two printers and something called an SMBus. I used Device Manager and my original disks to solve each of these issues. Now the Device Manager is clean - no yellow question marks.

I would expect the slow booting to be symptomatic of hardware conflicts, but I don't seem to have any. Could someone help me, please? I'm copying the summary configuration info from AIDA below. Many thanks!

Martin

--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
Computer Name MARTIN-0ZRNUSJW
User Name Martin
Logon Domain MARTIN-0ZRNUSJW

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4HT, 2400 MHz (3 x 800)
Motherboard Name Asus P4P800 (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 WiFi, 4 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865PE
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Asus AMI (06/11/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter ASUS V9180 Magic (R2.00A) V44.71a (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
Monitor NEC MultiSync LCD1700V (2704368GA)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative EMU10K1 SB Live! Audio Processor

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive HP photosmart 7900 USB Device
Disk Drive Iomega Iomega Peerless IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device
Disk Drive Promise 2+0 Span SCSI Disk Device
Optical Drive SONY CD-ROM CDU5211 (52x CD-ROM)
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX300E (DVD:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 20002 MB (13224 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 125429 MB (61322 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft PS/2 Mouse

Network:
Primary IP Address 192.168.15.101
Primary MAC Address 00-0C-6E-7C-0E-74
Network Adapter 3Com Gigabit LOM (3C940) (192.168.15.101)

Peripherals:
Printer Brother HL-1440 series
Printer hp photosmart 7900 series
USB Device photosmart 7900 series (DOT4USB)
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device
USB Device USB Printing Support
USB Device USB Printing Support

 

[bcastner]

For Issue 2), right click a blank area of the desktop, Properties, Desktop tab, and at bottom "Customize Desktop" to add the missing icons.

I strongly suspect a device driver issue. These sections need your attention at the web site manufacturer:

Display:
Video Adapter ASUS V9180 Magic (R2.00A) V44.71a (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
Monitor NEC MultiSync LCD1700V (2704368GA)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative EMU10K1 SB Live! Audio Processor

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive HP photosmart 7900 USB Device
Disk Drive Iomega Iomega Peerless IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device
Disk Drive Promise 2+0 Span SCSI Disk Device
Optical Drive SONY CD-ROM CDU5211 (52x CD-ROM)
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX300E (DVD:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

 

[KevinADC]

is scandisk or an anti-virus program running during bootup?

 

[mabcc]

Thanks to both. Certainly seems like updating my drivers would be worth my while. To answer KevinADC's question, I don't know. I have Symantec Anti-Virus set up to start automatically if that's what you mean, but don't know at what point it kicks in.

 

[KevinADC]

OK, when the computer is booting up, hold down the CTRL key until you get the startup screen menu. Pick "step by step confirmation". This way you will see if scandisk or an anti-virus check is running.

I also suspect a driver detection/configuration problem but half an hour seems like a long time for that type of problem, but you do have a lot of hardware so it's possible. You could try disconnecting all the USB stuff and see if that helps speed up the process.

 

[mabcc]

A contributor to another forum wrote:

"I think your problem might be running your boot disc off of a PCI card. I think this is why it is not recommended to run your OS from any PCI card disc controller as the data flow runs thru the PCI bus and shares bandwidth with anything you have on there including USB and IEEE1394 Firewire items, which you seem to have several of. The PCI bandwidth is also much smaller than the bandwidth for the Intel IDE controller which avoids the PCI bus for its IDE attachments..

My recommendation would be to run your OS disc(or RAID array) off the Intel controller and connections. You don't say whether your HDDS are SATA or PATA, but it doesn't matter, your mobo has connections for both. Any add-on PCI RAID card you wish to use would be better implemented for data storage and not an OS."

This makes intuitive sense to me - sounds like the RAID card may be causing a bottleneck. So if the above diagnosis is right, could the problem be resolved if I simply added a *third* HDD, installed the OS on *it* and made *it* the primary boot disk? The two existing 80gb HDDs would be used for data storage.

 

[rvnguy]

mabcc,

The two existing 80gb HDDs would be used for data storage.

As This is not a usual SCSI HD size and Promise is not noted for and may not produce SCSI controllers, I would venture to guess that your 80GB drives are either PATA or SATA drives. This might be from how AIDA sees this device.

If this is the situation I would suggest that you utilize the onboard SATA channels or the 2 open IDE channels depending on the type of drives you have and remove the addon card. This being what was recommended from the post you referenced.

As you referenced, you could also install a modest sized IDE HD as the OS boot drive if the current drives are in fact SATA drives.

This would clean up the volume of drivers loaded and eliminate one addon card from your system.

Please post back with your progress

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[stuke]

Go online and check for system updates. When it says to update automatically or do an advanced update, choose to do the advanced update. Then after installing the MS software, look at the options to update hardware. There might well be a driver on the left hand side that you need to update.

Another thing to try is to do a restart (sometime when you are not too busy) after configuring msconfig to do a diagnostic boot. This just starts with the most basic requirements. If it is faster to boot, then it suggests that something that was installed is not working correctly (driver or program) and it is not a hardware failure or physical configuration problem.

GL

 

[mabcc]

Thanks for the insights, both. Since I'm running out of storage space, I think I'll go out and buy a couple of larger HDDs (250 or 400 gb) redeploy one of the existing 80 gb drives as the boot drive and the other for extra storage. RVNGUY, if I remove the RAID card then won't I lose the ability to (in Windows) treat both drives as a single drive? That's a feature I'd like to keep. Or does SATA provide the same thing - I'm not familiar with the technology, although you've prompted me to do a little research.

STUKE, those are both good suggestions. I did try booting in safe mode, and it had no impact on boot time. Given the direction I'm going in I may not get a chance to try out your suggestions.

Am in the middle of a move so I had to pack the machine away until I get to the other side, which will be in a couple of weeks. Will let you know how it works out. Thanks.

 

[rvnguy]

mabcc,

Your mobo supports RAID 2 x Serial ATA, RAID 0, 1

See Specification Link:
ASUS P4P800

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=180&l1=3&l2=12&l3=31

As you should note you can span the drive in RAID "0" or mirror it in RAID "1". Utilizing 2 drives. If the 80's are SATA also you now have no connection for another SATA drive. But you still have 2 IDE channels that you can use. A small sized IDE would be sufficient for your OS/Apps drive.

Yes please keep posting your progress.

Hope This Helps

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[mabcc]

Interesting - and yes, VERY helpful. Thank you, rvnguy. I'll be back in a few weeks.