Very long boot times (spinning circles)

[djsavta]

Hey everyone,

 

For quite a while (a few months at least), I've been getting very long boot times on my Windows 10 64 bit machine.

The "spinning circles with Windows logo" screen is where it takes it's sweet little time, it just keep spinning for about 4-5 minutes before finally going to my lockscreen.

It should be noted that after the lockscreen shows up, everything works fine and the machine is really fast.

 

Here are my specs:

i7 8700K

Asus Prime Z370-A (latest BIOS 1002)

GTX 1080

16GB DDR4 3000Mhz

PSU: Corsair CX750M

Boot drive: Crucial MX300 525GB SSD (same thing happened on my previous Samsung 860 Evo SSD)

 

I haven't given it much attention since I only restart my machine about once or twice a week, but I would really like to know if it can be resolved.

I'm 100% sure that this is a Windows issue, since I've replaced my boot SSD a while ago and the issue was still there.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Spotty]

When you replaced your SSD, did you perform a fresh clean install of Windows 10 or did you clone the contents from the old drive directly to the new SSD?

[djsavta]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

When you replaced your SSD, did you perform a fresh clean install of Windows 10 or did you clone the contents from the old drive directly to the new SSD?

You're right, I haven't mentioned that.

I have cloned the contents to the new SSD, and the issue persisted.

Also, this Windows install has gone through quite a bit.

It a former Windows 7 machine that got updated.

 

This post is in hopes to not have to do a fresh Windows install, I could do that, but it's not worth the time and effort to get everything set up from scratch.

[itisme911]

25 minutes ago, djsavta said:

 

This post is in hopes to not have to do a fresh Windows install, I could do that, but it's not worth the time and effort to get everything set up from scratch.

OK there are some things you can try, im not sure about boot sequence but I do know faster boot comes with less programs at startup, type startup into windows search and remove any you dont think are necessary, IF the windows/data on your drive was originally on a hard drive a data defrag MAY* help, NOTE that its not reccommended for SSD because it uses (very little) of its life and there is no physical location anyways. MAKE SURE you are updated to latest windows revision, try going into startup settings on motherboard and in windows to enable quick startup and similar features. NOW here is what you wont like, a fresh install would probably be for the best, you could try windows repair to see if that might speed it a bit but with a lot of these processes any change doesnt mean it will get better and doesnt mean it wont get worse. 

[djsavta]

13 minutes ago, itisme911 said:

OK there are some things you can try, im not sure about boot sequence but I do know faster boot comes with less programs at startup, type startup into windows search and remove any you dont think are necessary, IF the windows/data on your drive was originally on a hard drive a data defrag MAY* help, NOTE that its not reccommended for SSD because it uses (very little) of its life and there is no physical location anyways. MAKE SURE you are updated to latest windows revision, try going into startup settings on motherboard and in windows to enable quick startup and similar features. NOW here is what you wont like, a fresh install would probably be for the best, you could try windows repair to see if that might speed it a bit but with a lot of these processes any change doesnt mean it will get better and doesnt mean it wont get worse. 

The same thing happens even on "safe startup" (all startup programs disabled), so that's definitely not it.

Data wasn't originally on a hard drive, it was originally on another SSD, which had the same issue.

The issue started when I updated my Windows some time ago, and my Windows has always been up-to-date (I'm an update freak).

On the BIOS side of things, everything is OK, it's when Windows kicks in where the problems come up.

 

I know I could do a fresh install, but then what would be the point of this thread? I would just do that and solve the issue but it isn't worth it for me.

[itisme911]

1 minute ago, djsavta said:

I would just do that and solve the issue but it isn't worth it for me.

The dont do a new install but I dont know what could help. is windows activated?

[djsavta]

Just now, itisme911 said:

The dont do a new install but I dont know what could help. is windows activated?

Indeed it is.

[itisme911]

1 minute ago, djsavta said:

Indeed it is.

I dont know what could help then other than trying a windows repair or trying a defragment.

[ZacoAttaco]

2 minutes ago, itisme911 said:

I dont know what could help then other than trying a windows repair or trying a defragment.

Good suggestion, although I don't think you're supposed to defrag an SSD.

[djsavta]

Windows 10 does auto defragments anyways, so it wouldn't be that even if my main drive was an HDD.

[itisme911]

Just now, ZacoAttaco said:

Good suggestion although I don't think you're supposed to defrag an SSD.

You arent though tit doesnt do much damage the have a set amount of "uses" for reading and writing data, defragging uses one (or a few not many) of these uses. 

[itisme911]

Just now, djsavta said:

Windows 10 does auto defragments anyways, so it wouldn't be that even if my main drive was an HDD.

Then shut it off for your ssd, THOUGH the auto defrag often fails in my experience.

[ZacoAttaco]

Have you changed any settings in the BIOS? Maybe messed with Fast Boot or something?

[djsavta]

OK so here is what I see on the defragment menu, looks like my 2 HDD's are 0% fragmented.

 

[itisme911]

1 minute ago, djsavta said:

OK so here is what I see on the defragment menu, looks like my 2 HDD's are 0% fragmented.

 

YOU HAVE MULTIPLE DRIVES IN your system, windows can take extra time reading them etc. If you can, meybe try unplugging them and booting with nothing other than boot ssd, and I have notices in the past the defrag in windows is ok but sometimes does not read accurately, try my suggestion or don't, its all I can suggest though.

 

EDIT actually you can use windows programs to delete unnecessary files, meybe windows knows something we dont and will tell you to delete some random crap that will help.

[djsavta]

2 minutes ago, itisme911 said:

YOU HAVE MULTIPLE DRIVES IN your system, windows can take extra time reading them etc. If you can, meybe try unplugging them and booting with nothing other than boot ssd, and I have notices in the past the defrag in windows is ok but sometimes does not read accurately, try my suggestion or don't, its all I can suggest though.

 

EDIT actually you can use windows programs to delete unnecessary files, meybe windows knows something we dont and will tell you to delete some random crap that will help.

I do have multiple drives, though I have tried your suggestion (I unplugged both of them and left only the SSD) but it did not resolve the issue.

I will give the cleanup a shot, even though I'm pretty sure it'll do nothing since I have done that multiple times during the time I've been experiencing this.

[ZacoAttaco]

If you're wanting to defrag your drives, Defraggler is the tool I use, seems to work pretty well and gives you good information on the state of the drives.

 

Have you changed any settings in the BIOS? Maybe messed with Fast Boot or something?

 

[djsavta]

It's not a hardware issue.

I have changed pretty much everything on the computer but the Windows installation (CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, PSU, SSD) and the issue was still there.

It's something with my Windows installation, I just wasn't able to find out what.

 

I guess the only solution is a fresh install, but I won't be doing that since that issue isn't bad enough to be worth that effort.

[ZacoAttaco]

10 hours ago, djsavta said:

It's not a hardware issue.

I have changed pretty much everything on the computer but the Windows installation (CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, PSU, SSD) and the issue was still there.

It's something with my Windows installation, I just wasn't able to find out what.

 

I guess the only solution is a fresh install, but I won't be doing that since that issue isn't bad enough to be worth that effort.

Fair enough, Windows 10 generally doesn't like hardware being changed a lot, as Linus showed in the a recent video. So especially if it's an old Windows 7 upgrade then Windows is probably the issue.  Sorry we couldn't help more.