Boot Cycle Time

Question

Hello,   I recently did a clean installation from Windows 98 SE to Windows XP Home Edition SP2 on my Dell Dimension XPS T550.  I also increased the memory to 512MB.  After about two weeks of installing various devices, software, and configuring, I've got my system operating pretty good.  However, I do have a question regarding the length of time that it takes to completely boot up.  From the time I push the start button to the time it is ready for for operation is right at 3 minutes.  The desktop and icons are up in about 1-1/2 minutes.  The hard drive continues to ramp up for another 1-1/2 minutes longer.  Is that about normal or shouild I expect better?   Thanks

tgsmith · Answer

Eddy65,

Sounds to me like you're above average. Keep your startup programs to a minimum and you're going to enjoy using the XPS T550. I've seen brand new 3.2Ghz systems with a gigabyte of RAM that took longer than that. My bench tester, a Dimension 4100 with 512Mb of RAM, is usually up in about the same time. Your hard drive ramp up time is better than normal. Watch out for programs such as AOL 9.0 Security Edition and the Internet Security packages of McAfee and Norton. They will definitely increase your hard drive ramp up time. Keep her lean and mean.

Tony

Joe RS · Answer

Hi Here is something u can try. Go to the local disk C, Open the windows folder & look for the folder prefetch. Delete all the contents in this folder. This should help a lot in getting ur system up & running fast.

Eddy65 · Answer

Joe RS,   Thanks for the reponse.   There are 80 exectible files in my prefetch folder.  Won't I get myself in trouble if I delete them all?  Do you know what they are or why they are there? Message Edited by Eddy65 on 08-02-200605:42 AM

Joe RS · Answer

Yup u can go ahead & delete them all!! This is the folder where windows stores locations to the recently accessed files & programs....etc. I have done it before aswell....so go ahead try it & let me know what happnd. If ur not convinced try to google it :smileyhappy:

fireberd · Answer

My relatively 'clean' P4 takes a couple of minutes to boot up.  I have an older PC (PII) and it takes close to 5 minutes to boot up.  Since yours is an older, and originally Win98, machine the 3 minutes does not sound like an abnormal amount of time.   Win XP has a lot more to do on initialization than the older DOS based operating systems, such as Win98, did.

fireberd · Answer

I got this from a site about the prefetch that says it's a myth to clean it.

Myth - "Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder improves performance"

Reality - "Every time you delete an application's Prefetch (.PF) file you will cripple that application's load time the next time you go to launch it. This can temporarily increase load times by as much as 100%. For one thing, XP will just re-create the Prefetch (.PF) trace files anyway; secondly, it trims the files if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't needlessly consume space. However you do not regain optimal application load times back until after the second time you launch the same application due to the Prefetch (.PF) trace file being re-created. Prefetch (.PF) trace files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup. They are never even accessed until you launch an application. Only one Prefetch (.PF) trace file per application is created. There is never ANY reason to delete these files. Cleaning the Prefetch folder is actually a temporary self-inflicted unoptimization. Why you would want to deliberately hurt your PC's performance I have no idea."

Eddy65 · Answer

Fireberd, I basicially read an article like that and it suggested to leave the Prefetch folder and files alone.  So I did, left it alone. Thanks

Windows General

Boot Cycle Time

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