Long Delay after Post before WinXP starts booting!

[ML365]

Hello Everyone!

I reformatted a HD with NTFS, did a clean install of WinXP, and now have a long delay between the end of my Post and the startup of WinXP boot.
Just a black screen with cursor blinking in upper left corner for about 4 minutes!!
Then WinXP starts booting properly.

Hardware config:
P2-333 with 320 MB RAM
2 separate Ultra100 hard drives, each connected as master on separate cables to Ultra100 controller, with WinXP installed on a C partition (occupying entire first HD)

That C partition may or may not be set as active.
Tried checking that within Partition Magic 8, and Set Active is grayed out, so I assume it is set as active.
Doing other partitioning tasks, I had gotten a message saying there was no active partition.

Could this have something to do with it?
How to check/test/fix?
Any tips greatly appreciated!!

 

[Thaya1088]

I had similar problems pre-formatting Maxtor and other make drives... Not sure what you are formatting with, but Maxtor's Tech suggested that I do not pre-format, just fdisk and let Win XP do the formatting and subsequent installation...

 

[ML365]

Thanks for reply Thaya1088!
But I did let WinXP do the formatting for me (NTFS), sorry, my initial post wasn't clear about this!
My WinXP PC does its POST (about 30 seconds), then I get a black screen and blinking cursor in upper left corner of screen for about 3.5 minutes, then WinXP starts loading normally (takes about 40 seconds to load).
I'd love to eliminate that 3+ minute delay between POST and WinXP starting to load.

 

[titantech]

Check the following:
The computer may be trying to boot from another device first such as a raid controller or network, etc.

On some Intel MB's certain Cdroms cause the computer to take forever to boot. Try unpluging the CDROM and see if it boots faster.

Check and make sure you boot drive is on the primary channel, Master position and preferable jumpered as cable select.

Make sure your using ATA100 80Pin cables.

Make sure the HD predelay in the bios is set correctly.

 

[Thaya1088]

Sorry, I sneak in here between other tasks... Have you removed unnecessary Start-up stuff?

After XP starts, go to START, Run, type: msconfig and check the 'Startup Tab'.... deselect stuff you know you don't need or experiment and see if you find the culprit... actually, check all the tabs and see if so program or device (and subsequent driver it loads), is slowing you down.

I'm also thinking clearing prefetch, but first check to see if something you've installed is part of the problem...

 

[linney]

Q300415 - A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q300415&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

active.

Use the active command to set the current in-focus partition to "active." This setting informs the firmware that the partition is a valid system partition. Diskpart does not validate the partition contents.

NOTE: If you use this command, the computer may be unable to restart.