Long bootup in Windows 8.1 (SSD)

[sincreator]

I have an issue that has been driving me crazy, lol. Usually I can figure it out myself, and I may of. First off, from a cold boot windows hangs. I get right to the win 8.1 loading screen almost instantly but it just keeps loading. Then if I boot to the bios first and just save and restart, it loads but takes 35 seconds. The same happens when doing a normal restart from inside windows. This didn't always happen though is the thing. I think either I changed something I shouldn't have while exploring the new windows, or possibly a HDD that has been failing on me. The HDD failure is the only thing I can think of it being. Possibly trying to read the drive at every startup.

I have tried 3 different bios versions, I have tried running factory defaults, I have tried while overclocked, I have tried reinstalling the chipset drivers for z97 and all motherboard utilities that I use like the killer nic, and the SoundBlaster onboard audio. I have tried checking the integrity of the windows files, system restores, Image recovery form a month ago. I updated my Crucial MX-100 256gb(OS drive) firmware, I have tested the speeds of my SSD for anomalies, I have ran memtest. I have ran malwarebytes, spybot, and fsecure.

I used to boot in 7/8 secs, now it's usually 35 seconds. I have run out of options at this point, and am looking for any ideas for new things to try. This weekend I am going to pull out the bad HDD and see what happens, as it's the last idea I have.

I would appreciate any help if someone may know some different things to try. Thank you for your time.

 

[oczdude8]

I get that too sometimes... I think its a software issue. I had a problem before, where a desktop shortcut that reference something that was deleted actually prevented my from booting into windows. I deleted the shortcut by booting into safe mode, and everything worked fine.

Have u tried cleaning ur registry?

 

[Paul NZ]

Make sure the hdd is the bootdisk in the BIOS. If its on DVD now (or something else), it can add another 20 secs to the boot time

Whats in startup?? Depending on whats in startup some programs can make windows take longer to boot

Dont use reg cleaners. they'll make things worse, and if you delete the wrong entries, you can screw windows up

 

[sincreator]

Actually my SSD is the first boot device. There's nothing in the startup slowing things down either. I may of turned off a process though that needed to be enabled. I also have one of my HDD showing up as removable, but it's not set up to be at all in the bios. I forgot to mention that in my first post. Any more ideas?

Oh and no weird crashes, or issues with games or anything either. Bench mark scores are where they should be as well.

 

[Paul NZ]

Look in event viewer under windows logs. That may tell you whats causing it

 

[sincreator]

Look in event viewer under windows logs. That may tell you whats causing it

I'm heading to bed there now, but I will check that out and report back tomorrow. Until, then keep the suggestions coming. Thanks guys.

 

[oczdude8]

Dont use reg cleaners. they'll make things worse, and if you delete the wrong entries, you can screw windows up

That's true, but I've found Ccleaner to be very effective at finding and eliminating obsolete entries. I usually check them to make sure they are legitimate.

That being said, it may be faster for OP to just do a clean install of windows 8.1. Will probably free some extra space on the SSD as well

 

[sincreator]

I figured out my issue. The dying HDD was the issue. At startup Windows would wait for the drive to read before it would let me into Windows(which could be instant, or up to 5 minutes at times). As soon as I unplugged the drive, everything worked again as it should.

The drive that showed as removable even got fixed once I unhooked the bad HDD. It now is the same as all the rest, just standard storage.

I got to say, this is my very first HDD failure in the last 15 years. I even have a first gen WD raptor 10k running right now for music. That drive is ancient, and only 73gb, lol. In case anyone was wondering the type of drive that failed, it was a WD Caviar Green 320gb. It lasted for about 7 years and was just used as storage for videos, no intensive workloads really.

Thanks for the help guys, either way.