Windows loads very slowly

[staffy05]

My new (ish) computer used to load windows very fast but now even my old celeron system can load faster than it.

I installed a version of linux on it one day which killed my windows install. After reinstalling windows the loading times were quite large so I reinstalled it again, but I still had the same problem.

I think windows thinks I have a scsi drive when I really have a plain ide drive (80gb).

the boot.ini file shows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=signature(a3f2a3f2)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
signature(a3f2a3f2)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

and windows says this:

It appears the following line in the boot.ini file does not refer to a valid operating system.


I have tried changing the boot.ini file but it just changes back to what is displayed above.

any ideas?

 

[staffy05]

I should add that I get a black screen for around 20 seconds before I see the windows loading screen. Around 20 seconds later I see "welcome" screen. This is with a 3ghz p4 with 512mb pc3200 ram and the 80gb hard drive.

the standard windows boot.ini is as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP home" /fastdetect

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: staffy05
My new (ish) computer used to load windows very fast but now even my old celeron system can load faster than it.

I installed a version of linux on it one day which killed my windows install. After reinstalling windows the loading times were quite large so I reinstalled it again, but I still had the same problem.

I think windows thinks I have a scsi drive when I really have a plain ide drive (80gb).

the boot.ini file shows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=signature(a3f2a3f2)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
signature(a3f2a3f2)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

and windows says this:

It appears the following line in the boot.ini file does not refer to a valid operating system.


I have tried changing the boot.ini file but it just changes back to what is displayed above.

any ideas?

The signature() syntax instructs Ntldr to locate the disk with the signature that matches the first value in parentheses, regardless of the controller number associated with the disk. A disk signature is a globally unique identifier (GUID) that is extracted from information in the MBR and written to the disk during the text-mode portion of Windows XP Professional Setup or during previous Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional installations. This 128-bit hexadecimal number uniquely identifies the disk.

If you see the signature() syntax used in the Boot.ini file, it means that Ntbootdd.sys is required to access the boot partition and one or both of the following conditions exist:

You installed Windows XP Professional to a hard disk partition larger than 7.8 gigabytes (GB) in size, the ending cylinder number is higher than 1024 for that partition, and the system firmware or startup controller BIOS cannot gain access by using extended INT-13 calls.
The hard disk controller BIOS does not support extended INT-13 calls or you have set this option to disabled by using the adapter's built-in setup utility. When Windows XP Professional is unable to use INT-13 BIOS calls during the startup process, the file Ntbootdd.sys is required to access the boot partition.
Whenever possible, configure your storage controller to use INT-13 BIOS calls. Consult the documentation for the storage adapter to determine the correct hardware settings.

Table 28.16 describes the signature() parameters.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu.../XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_masc.asp