Windows 7 really slow startup

[NJW]

Which is "hardware".

Exactly.

Simply boot one of the many stand-alone OS CDs (e.g. Linux, Acronis, one of the PE versions). If you see the same "hang", then it's hardware, otherwise it's software.

Booting a live CD tests most of the hardware, but not the hard drive, which would be my No. 1 suspect with the OP symptoms.

 

[glennd]

Has anybody suggested booting from a Linux CD yet?

I think you should try booting from a linux cd.

I think that makes me about number four or five...

 

[frenchscottie]

I think the OP must of fixed it by now.
If the OP is a Tech then surely it would of been a lot quicker if he just cloned the drive, which he should be doing anyway, and bung in the clone and boot up and see what happens. It would of taken less time to do that than write his post.
90% of the time when you get the really slow boot ups, it's down to the drive I've found.

 

[oldtimer50]

I have a Windows 7 laptop in Toshiba Sattelite I3 with 4gb Ram.

Machine seems to boot ok, Windows logo comes up as normal and then loads to a black screen with a mouse pointer and just sits there, maybe 4 or 5 minutes then the desktop comes up and from that point the machine operates normally and at a reasonable speed.

I have scanned it for malware, removed pup's etc and also removed some old programmes to no avail.

Any software available that would be able to tell me what is causing the slow boot?

I had a Toshiba C660 in showing all the same problems, adware pup's, hard drive was tested and ok, I flushed the BIOS and that did the trick.

 

[David Stelmach]

If you have no hardware testing software, which, as a 'PC Doctor', I assume that you do, then MS Office has some built in, and some recovery partitions do as well. Otherwise, download a Hirens Boot CD ISO from here http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

 

[PC Doctor]

Sorry forgot to come back and update been away for a few days. It wasn't the hard drive which tested out OK with crystal disc, Something corrupted the BBC Iplayer Desktop app which had it creating a multitude of files constantly, once I removed that we got back to decent boot speed. I did end up putting an SSD in it with more ram.

Sometimes it's intrigue more than anything that means we will try and resolve a problem rather than backup and nuke.