[SOLVED] SSD takes 30 - 45min to boot

[Rhawkie]

I was not entirely sure where to post this as I don't know if it is a Windows or SSD/HDD problem.

About 2 or 3 years ago, I was using a 750GB HDD as my primary HDD with my OS (Windows 10) on. I had since bought an SAMSUNG 850 250GB SSD with the hopes of improving my startup time. So I reinstalled my OS on the SSD WITHOUT wiping the HDD (it had a lot of my files on it and I didn't have anywhere to back it up to). For the first few weeks, it was working well as expected. However, in these past 2 years the SSD had started taking 30-45 minutes to boot Windows. It gets stuck on the Windows 10 loading screen. After the computer is booted, it works perfectly.

I have also since found out that if the computer is shut down properly (by pressing the shut down option in start menu) the PC will start in 10 to 20 seconds as it should, but if the PC shuts down due to power outage, restarting or any other means (more common), it will take the 30 - 45 minutes to boot.

I have since formatted the 750GB HDD with hopes of it fixing the problem (maybe the OS's on the 2 drives were clashing?) but it did not fix the problem. I have set the SSD as the primary and only boot device in the BIOS, but still not fixed.

If there is anyone who can provide some help or support, please do. I will be trying the Windows 10 repair now and after that I will need to resort to reinstalling the OS, but I'm not sure if it will work.

Thanks!

 

[Colif]

At what stage of boot is it slow? Before the login screen or after?

what is the boot order in the bios? it could be still looking for the hdd.

Have you tried removing all other drives and only leaving ssd in to see if its still slow?

have you run Samsung Magician on the ssd to see if you have latest firmware and check its SMART score?

How full is the ssd?

WIn 10 by default uses Fast startup to accelerate startup after a shutdown. What that does is keeps PC powered on after you shut it down, and saves a copy of drivers running into either ram or into hiberfil.sys , so that when you restart its already half loaded. FAst startup only works if you use the start menu to shutdown, any other method will mean PC does a fresh boot instead.

SO its on fresh boots that it takes forever.

What are rest of specs of PC?
PC checks all hardware at startup and it could be something else that is slowing startup, not the ssd. It could be querying something that takes that long to time out. Often really slow boot means its a hdd problem, not ssd.

Try removing every unessential peices of hardware and see if it reduces boot

 

[Rhawkie]

At what stage: the windows logo with the loading animation

Boot order in BIOS: There is none. I set the SSD as the sole and primary booting drive.

Removing other hardware. I have not, but I did try restarting the PC with the other HDD freshly formatted, to no avail.

I have not run Samsung Magician on the SSD. Was not even aware of it. Will do that.

The SSD has 125GB used of 231GB.

My other PC specs:
Intel Core i5 4670 @ 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3 @ 666MHz
BIOSTAR Group Hi-Fi Z87W
GTX 750 Ti 2GB
250GB Samsung SSD
750GB Western Digital HDD
2TB Western Digital HDD

I will also try and remove other hardware and see what happens. It's just really inconvenient to remove them as it really has a long startup time and 45 minutes is quite a while.

Will keep this thread updated as I do these.

 

[Colif]

Try running Data LIfeguard on the two WD drives and see what it shows - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3&lang=en

I would be amazed if its the ssd. so I suspect its something else

It could be drivers. the Biostar website doesn't show many new ones since 2015 - https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=646#download

can you download and run Driverview - all it does is looks at currently running drivers
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
when you run it, go into view menu and hide all MIcrosoft drivers as that will reduce how many are shown

can you take a screenshot showing all of columns from (and including) driver name to (and including) Creation date.
upload to an image sharing website and show link here. I see if I can find any obvious clues.

 

[Ketchup79]

You mentioned the 750 GB drive but not the 2 TB drive. Unplug both hard drivers and boot a could times in the SSD. Is it still slow?

 

[Colif]

You mentioned the 750 GB drive but not the 2 TB drive. Unplug both hard drivers and boot a could times in the SSD. Is it still slow?

I was going to suggest this but as it takes 45 minutes for PC to boot, I figure test drive health an easier way before making them wait that long to confirm its not the drives