What is the fastest Windows can load?

[Concillian]

The issue is all of the initialization and crap that starts on boot.

If you have NO extra hardware, no FONTS, no networking, and no extra services running, Windows will boot in a flash. But add a network card, a fancy video card with huge drivers, a Creative sound card, an Office install with 100 fonts, all services on default, and it will take you a while to load windows, no matter what CPU, RAM and hard drive you have.

Yes, the hard drive makes a difference, as my Seagate 15k drives definitely boot faster than the 7200.7, but a certain amount of the startup is simply initializing all the hardware. Firewire, USB, controllers, NICs, everything adds just a little bit to the bootup, some more than others.

 

[Zap]

Too bad it takes a while to get to the "booting off hard drive" part. Some video BIOSes stay on the screen for 2-3 seconds on their own. Heck, I think the Leadtek BIOS even is animated. Then, the system BIOS, then any storage/RAID BIOS, then some network cards flash a "press N to boot from Network" (I have a 3Com 3C905TX that does that). All those "2-3 seconds" can add up to a half minute by the time Windows loads.

 

[CommandoCATS]

I think network cards take the longest. I know in windows 9x, there was a (really long) waiting period during startup to contact the DHCP (sometimes like, 2 or 3 minutes of doing nothing depending on how many network cards). I think Windows XP is much better, but if you unplug all network hardware, it still seems to be quite a lot faster.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: CommandoCATS
I think network cards take the longest. I know in windows 9x, there was a (really long) waiting period during startup to contact the DHCP (sometimes like, 2 or 3 minutes of doing nothing depending on how many network cards). I think Windows XP is much better, but if you unplug all network hardware, it still seems to be quite a lot faster.

Yep, I experimented with one rig not connected to home network and I disabled automatic startup of workstation network. XP bypasses checking for other computers that may be connected to this rig. Shaves off 3 seconds.

This and mrk6 suggestion of making it detect only one OS makes a big difference.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

link

Got my system booting to the desktop in about 6sec.
2500+ @ 12.5x169
80GB WD SE
512 PC2700

 

[zodder]

Doesn't the famous Michael's computers boot in mere seconds?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, FWIW, I set up a computer once for someone, it was a PIII Celly Tualatin 1.2Ghz, on an SiS-chipset mobo, I think that I might have had some of the onboard devices disabled in the BIOS, I don't recall what the video card was, but I think that it might have been a V3 3000 AGP, with a fresh install of W2K (gold?), on a WD 20GB 7200 RPM ATA-100 HD. (To this day I do think that the SiS635T chipset is probably the highest-performing one made for the Socket370 platform. If the i440BX was ever reincarnated, it would have come back as an SiS635T.)

I'm not sure if it was the BIOS, or the SiS IDE controller, or the video card's BIOS, or what, but to this day, I've never seen a machine boot faster. It probably went from power-on to W2K desktop in under 5 seconds. That intermediate GUI loading bar that W2K does only just briefly flashed onto the screen, and the mobo BIOS boot-up screens were just as quick. It was quite surprising, and amazing, as my machine at the time took around 30s to boot all the way to the desktop. Then again, I often have loads of extra hardware in mine.

So I guess that it is in fact possible, perhaps with a slightly faster CPU and HD, to obtain 3-4s cold-boot times. I would personally rather be safe than sorry, though, and have POST do a fairly thorough self-test of the hardware, rather than just a "quick boot". I don't reboot all that often anyways, so it's not a big deal for me. Besides, my multiple SCSI and IDE controllers and network cards and the like all take like an extra 10-15s or so of bootup time themselves. So my current cold boot-to-desktop times are probably closer to a full minute right now.