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How to speed up Windows boot time.. RRS feed

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    <!-- Start Member Post --> <!-- google_ad_section_start -->
    Hi,
     
    I am working at improving the boot up time of windows XP. I would like to know how to speed up the preSMSS, SMSSInit & WinLogogInit phases of booting ? For more info on the diff phases of booting see:
    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/On-Off_Transition.mspx

    I'm testing on a quad-core Dell machine with 6 GB of ram & SCSI RAID0 configuration. Due to some reason XP is unable to take advantage of the hardware. The boot is damn slow.

    Here is a brief of what i did:
    1) Using autoruns.exe removed lot of unwanted processes.
    2) Disable unwanted services
    3) Assign static IP and disabled DHCP & DNS service.
    4) Disabled Remote Desktop sharing.
    5) De-fragmented C Drive. (C drive is not on RAID, its configured on D drive )
    6) Using msconfig, removed [Mail], [MCI Extension] from Win.ini Tab
    7) Using msconfig, checked the /NOGUIBOOT option from Boot.ini tab thereby disabling the GUI while booting.
    8) Changed the performance options in System Properties -> Advanced
        "Adjust for best performance" under visual effects tab &
        "Adjust for best performance of Background Services" under Advanced tab.
    9) Disabled System Restore on all drives.

    The above steps showed some improvement on explorer Init phase. But, the OS loading phases (PreSMSS, SMSSInit & WinLogonInit) were still very slow.

    After some research, i realized that the I/O plays a significant role in the boot time performance. How do i tune the I/O to be fast ? I remember during format, specifying the Allocation Unit Size to its default size. Can i tweak the allocation unit ? Any help would be really appreciated.

    PS:
    I've not been able to benchmark the RAID as of now. I am planning to use ATTO or HD Tune Analyzer. Also, I am using xbootmgr, xperf & xperfview to capture and benchmark boot performance metrics.

    Sunday, February 7, 2010 8:58 AM

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    You could also try the in-famous "trick" to go to msconfig.exe > Boot > Advanced options and there make sure that you increase the number of processors. Some say this had significant improvements to boot times. I have not tested nor made that much research into this myself so try and get back with the results.
    Sunday, February 7, 2010 10:52 AM
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    Hi,

    train the ReadyBoot prefetcher by using the -prepSystem command when creating a boot trace:

    http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/140262-how-to-speed-up-boot-process-under-windows-vista-or-windows-7/

    André
    "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
    Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:51 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Thank you for visiting the Microsoft forum. This forum focuses on Perfmon and diagnostic tools. I am moving your question to the moderator forum ("Where is the forum for..?"). The owner of the forum will direct you to a right forum.

     

    Thanks.

    Bruce Adamczak

    Bruce Adamczak
    Monday, November 8, 2010 7:00 PM
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    Hello,

     

    Thank you for your post!  I would suggest creating a new thread for your question in the Performance and Maintenance located here:  http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/w7performance/threads


    Have a great day!

    Thanks!

    SachinW Tier 2 Application Support Server and Tools Online Operations Team
    Monday, November 8, 2010 10:38 PM
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    Boot time can be improved with the use of SSD (solid state drive) instead of HDD (hard disk drive).  Someday, there could be hybrid drives where you get the benefit of SSD but still have the cheap memory of HDD.

    I wish Microsoft could build a "software hybrid drive" where a system would have both a SSD and HDD installed, most likely a small SSD to save on cost.  Windows would detect this and automatically install system files that would reduce boot time and improve performance into the SSD while leaving seldom used files on the HDD.  The only thing that really need to change in Windows is instead of having only "C:\WINDOWS" for search path, Windows would search "C:\WINDOWS" and "D:\WINDOWS" where D: is SSD and C: is HDD.  Which file goes where can be determined in the installation program.

    Right now, HDD companies are trying to make "hardware hybrid drive" where the hybrid drive itself determines which files go into SSD.  The problem is storage devices only sees sectors.  It is difficult to optimize Windows installation when the drive has no idea where the file starts and ends and what the files are used for.  In contrast, it is very easy for OS developers to know which files are speed sensitive.

    Monday, July 4, 2011 4:47 PM