Yesterday for the first time ever I saw a white progress bar at the bottom of a black screen during startup, just before the Windows splash screen with the blue scrolling.

Here are the changes that I made to my computer (Dell Dimension 8400, XP Home SP2) that day (in order that they were made):

1. Installed an update for Adobe flash player (security update, got it from the adobe updater notification)

2. Installed Dell Security Center 2 (I had been avoiding it for months but got an icon for the updater in my notification area/system tray and it could not be canceled, only paused, so I assumed it was a mandatory Dell update). I believe there was a required restart which was normal because at this point I did not see the white bar or anything out of the ordinary despite watching the whole time.

3. Uninstalled Dell Security Center 2 (it was slowing my system down and kept prompting Norton to give malicious script warnings)

4. Did a system restore to the point before the Dell Security Center 2 installation to get rid of any leftover registry changes.

5. As the computer was restarting after the system restore, the white progress indication on black screen appeared. It kept appearing for every restart or shut down/start up from then on. It only lasts for about 2-3 seconds but the time between the end of the Windows splash screen (with blue scrolling) until the blue "Welcome" page is longer by about 20 seconds or so and just shows a black screen with nothing else.

I have read that this is normal on some systems, but I have never seen it before on mine so that would mean something is slowing it down during startup?

Is there any way to find the source of this change? Does it mean my harddrive is dying?

On a slightly unrelated note, if the harddrive should need to be replaced, is it possible to get another HD with the Dell partition that stores the factory settings for Dell factory restore (Ctrl + F11)?

Many thanks, all info is appreciated!