Slow boot up problem but at white bar screen!!

[stevenriz]

Hi I have a slow boot up problem going on here. I just reformatted and reinstalled a dell dimension because the system got so bad, it's all we could do without spending a lot of time on it. Anyway, I reformated using the recovery CD and reinstalled the OS. Installed SP2 and all drivers. I noticed this just before I put on SP2. During the reboot, it scans devices for a long time while the screen is black. Then the little white slotted bar appears, you know the one just before it says starting Windows XP. But it hangs on that white bar for about a minute instead of flying across like it usually does. Any ideas here? I don't want to go through this again unless I have to. Thanks!
Steve

 

[linney]

Anything showing up in the Event Viewer?

The drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to thoroughly check your hard drive for errors.

To check your RAM.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

What are Some Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP 2)?

http://support.dell.com/support/top...&s=dhs&docid=E1676521CB536B47E030A68F2728773F

How do I perform a Repair Reinstall of Microsoft® Windows® XP?

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1056993

 

[maxthedork]

When the white bar first appears, hit F8 and choose Enable Boot Logging. After Windows boots, take a look at C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt (where C:\Windows is your Windows XP installation directory - subtitute whatever your Windows folder is). This log should tell you where failures and timeouts are occurring. If you need help analyzing the file, look at Bootlog Analyzer, which gives detailed information about the entries in the boot log.

Good luck!

 

[stevenriz]

Thanks. There are no messages in Event Viewer and there are no failures in the bootlog, there are a few "not loaded" messages like on floppy etc... It seems to hang right before the PC even boots. It sits right after the Dell bios screen as soon as it goes blank, then the white bar appears, then one white bar lights up, then two, then three, then four then the computer boots after about two minutes and all is fast after that. I might re-partition the entire system again. I don't know what else to do. I could try those drive diagnostics like linney mentioned. I'll report back!
Steve

 

[ndaru]

Have you tried to press F5 immediately after booting to enter Safe mode?

http://www.freetechbooks.com

 

[stevenriz]

Yes. I actually use F8. The menu will not appear until a few white bars are lit up. It hangs before even that happens.

 

[maxthedork]

Start > Run > msconfig

Click on the BOOT.INI tab, and check the option for /BOOTLOG. That way it'll start logging as soon as NTLoader starts the bootstrap.

 

[stevenriz]

it definately has soemthing to do with the partition and/or MBR. What originally happened, I know you're gonna kill me, my friend's installation became corrupt so I booted with a linux live CD to try and tar everything up and transfer to my network. I did all that but the partition wouldn't come up anymore so I went ahead and reinstalled Windows. I DID delete and recreate the partition tho so I don't what the issue would be.

I am going to run a fixmbr on it and see what happend. PIA.

 

[stevenriz]

I did the fixmrb and the fixboot multiple times and it still hangs there. I just have this gut feeling it is a problem with the boot record and/or partition. Weird. Once the computer boots it's perfectly fine.

Any other thought? If not, I am going to wipe it out and start over

 

[stevenriz]

one more idea I have. I use Partition Magic. Maybe I will backup this partition and save it to the network here somewhere. Then restore it. During the restore, PM gives you the option to delete current partition and recreate with new. I think it's worth a shot!

 

[stevenriz]

I have more info. First of all my partition magic does not support this partition for some reason.

I created additional entries in boot.ini and when the computer boots that boot menu pops up quickly. Then when I Select any of the options I created, that is where it gets hung up.

Don't know if this means anything to anyone. Thought I'd ask. By morning if I can't figure it out, I will go ahead and do a reinstall and reformat etc....

Thanks for listening!!
Steve

 

[satrow]

Hi Steve, did you use PM prevously to partition/change partitions?

I've had some strange experiences with a hooky version of PM and 'lost' partitions in the past - you are using a legal version?

 

[stevenriz]

no it was an original WinXP Home that went south so I booted with a live Knoppix CD, set the partition from read only to read/write so I could copy the contents off. That was before I learned knoppix can't speak NTFS.. so that is what killed it. Anyway I did a recovery CD fully reformatting the drive but that wasn't good enough I guess.

I used an older PM, 4.0 I think for DOS. I like using DOS for that stuff. I boot to a netware server using ODI drivers and copy the partition there.. Maybe I should upgrade? I don't even know if I have enough disk space anywhere to save that partition anyway. It was initially going to be about a 50gb partition for some reason. Maybe a newer version will calculate it better.