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XP boot-up problem

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Armando:
If the hard drive is a problem, it doesn't necessarily mean that data is bad. IMO, you should image it for future reference anyway before you do anything that'll make it spin and heat up for an extended period of time.

mouser:
if it was the hard drive, you could buy a nice new fast hd (10k rpm), install it in your pc or in an external usb enclosure, then clone current drive onto new drive, then replace new with old.  no reinstall of OS needed.

Carol Haynes:
Have you checked your event log?

I have found that services failing (or being very slow) to start can cause log delays at startup. If there are no errors showing try putting a shortcut to eventvwr.msc in your HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key.

It will load during system startup and you can watch system as the system loads - just keep hitting refress - see if anything in particular seems to take a long time to start. They should drop out with an error but if it is hogging the system maybe it is avoiding this!

johnk:
try putting a shortcut to eventvwr.msc in your HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key.
-Carol Haynes (March 23, 2008, 01:41 PM)
--- End quote ---

Carol,

Sorry for the slow reply -- I've been in an internet-free zone for the last couple of days (never a pleasant experience). I have taken a glance at the event log from time to time, but I'd never thought of putting the event viewer in my startup folder. Thanks for the tip.

f0dder:
Go to Device Manager, check properties of your "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"->IDE Channels. Check advanced tab, and see if any adapters are in PIO mode. Optionally check some links from this google query for more information.

Next, find a S.M.A.R.T disk monitor (can't remember which one I used, so you'll have to google - if you're comfortable with DOS boot floppys / CDs / USB drives, find a drive diagnostic tool from your hard drive vendor). Especially check for the "reallocated sector count" SMART property, that's a pretty good indication that your drive is going bonkers.

Having your IDE channels in PIO mode sound like a very reasonable explanation for your symptoms (especially the 100% CPU usage). The cause of those symptoms can be multiple things, and bad sectors on your drive could very well be the explanation (would explain why you get complete freezes for a while... I recently fixed a laptop that had bad sectors on areas used by the registry...)

If anybody recommends you to purchase and run SpinRite, don't :)

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