Win10: Fast Startup vs Fast Boot?

[jrichrds]

I see a Fast Boot option in BIOS, and a Fast Startup option in the Power Options section of Windows 10. Are they referring to the same thing? Any point in enabling Fast Boot in the BIOS if Fast Startup is disabled in Win10 because I disabled hibernation (using SSD)?

 

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[TeknoBug]

Fast boot in BIOS isn't a good idea because what if you need to get into the BIOS sometime but won't be able to until you reset the CMOS.

 

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[Mem]

I would advise to disable fast Start up if stability is important to you.


Info here,

Enabled by default on most clean installations of Windows 10, Fast Startup essentially hibernates the Windows kernel and loaded drivers to help slash startup times. It all sounds great, but Fast Startup may not be quite as good as you think. Not only can it seriously mess up dual-boot systems, it may also interfere with the installation of updates, and could cause problems with encryption software.

http://betanews.com/2016/03/03/windows-10-fast-startup/

 

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[Mem]

That doesn't say much about stability. The updates is the only thing that's going to be relevant for 90% of users, and all it means is that you should remember to conduct a restart after updates and not think that shutdown+start is equivalent to a restart.

However, I personally have noticed some other form of strange behavior caused by Fast Startup. I wrote this in my original post, but decided to remove it because I can't remember what exactly the problem was. It had nothing to do with any of those examples from that article. I wish I could remember what it did, but after that I started disabling Fast Startup as a precaution.

On a slow PC Fast Startup can make an impressive difference. On a fast, modern PC, it's probably not worth it.

I have had weird behaviour as well with some drivers and hardware with it enabled, regardless I prefer it disabled because my Win10 is just more stable ie no weird issues with it disabled.

Also considering Win10 has auto updates that effects every user, yes it is quite important with regards to fast start up.

End of the day if you want to ensure maximum stability have it disabled.

 

[quikah]

Never seen a problem with updates and fast start. You can just do a restart if there is anything funky going on, that does a full shutdown/boot.

 

[WilliamM2]

Fast boot in BIOS isn't a good idea because what if you need to get into the BIOS sometime but won't be able to until you reset the CMOS.

Many UEFI bios will allow you to set a delay so you can enter the bios. I set mine to fast boot with a 1 second delay. That means I see the Asus splash screen for 1 second, plenty of time to hit delete to enter setup, or F8 to get a boot menu.

 

[jrichrds]

Fast Boot in the BIOS is a setting that allows it to skip certain stages of POST.

Fast Startup is a form of hibernation that dumps the contents of the RAM onto the HDD/SSD and copies it back to the RAM on the next boot to speed up the initialization of Windows.

Be aware that Fast Boot can sometimes make it impossible to access the BIOS or boot menu via keyboard hotkeys. "I enabled Fast Boot and now I can't access the BIOS" is a common complaint. In this event, if you're using UEFI mode, you can initiate a restart to the BIOS from within Windows (8, 10).

I find that Fast Boot usually has a negligible effect on overall boot time, so I never bother enabling it. To get the fastest possible boot, you want to install Windows 10 in UEFI mode, with the BIOS set to UEFI and CSM disabled/secureboot enabled (assuming UEFI GOP GPU etc.).

There's no point disabling hibernation if you aren't short on space and want to use Fast Startup.

What is your motherboard?

Thanks for clarifying Fast Startup and Fast Boot being 2 different, unrelated options. I had thought perhaps the 2 settings were linked and both had to be enabled to see a benefit.

I have an MSI board that has both "MSI Fast Boot" and regular "Fast Boot" settings (enabling MSI's version disables the regular "Fast Boot"). If I enable "MSI Fast Boot," I can't get into the BIOS without going thru the menu in Win10...that's probably where the extra second shaved off the startup time comes from. If I enable "Fast Boot", while I don't get the MSI splash screen, I can still hit Del and get into the BIOS. The MSI splash screen is gone regardless of Fast Boot as long as I'm in UEFI-only mode.

I tried to measure the boot time difference with Fast Boot enabled and disabled, and I couldn't measure the difference. So it's more academic interest at this point. 🙂

I disable hibernation because I hear it's not so great for SSDs. And I only use sleep mode because it's faster and have PC connected to a battery backup. I wonder how much faster Fast Startup would be anyways if boot drive is SSD?