Slow Start Up

[Scarlett]

My old PC with several external hard drives plugged into it is taking forever to start up. I turn it on, it sticks on the Dell screen for half an hour, then the screen goes black for an hour, then finally it starts up. Any idea why? Some days it is okay, other days it is worse than this. Thanks! (Windows 2000 I think, XP)

[bhg481]

If you disconnect the hard drives you don't always need you will get a faster startup (been there). I have several external hard drives that I use for backups etc, connected via USB. Only connecting them when I need them has speeded up my start-up time quite a lot.

[gingejbee]

I'm sure somebody will come up with a more technical answer...but it's getting old and you're expecting it to do too much....would be my guess.

[quizman55]

It is due to the hard drives being connected at boot, Windows will look at all the external drives before deciding which one (which will be none of the externals in any case) it needs to boot from (probably your internal C drive). Disconnect or power down the external HDDs until you have booted into windows. My system is the same, if any of the external HDDs is turned on it takes longer to boot into Windows.

[bibblebub]

if file indexing is turned on for the external hard drives that could take a long time, also if your anti-virus is set to check removable drives then that could be another slow down

[Scarlett]

Thank you- how can I check to see if file indexing is turned on?

[retrotv]

Once the computer has coughed into life.

Start
Run
winver

Please post the Microsoft Windows version and the vintage of this PC.

[Scarlett]

I've had the PC probably 6 or 7 years. I think it is Windows 2000. How do I run winver?

[retrotv]

Click the START menu
Click the RUN menu
Type winver .

If this does not work you are not running a modern Windows.

[Scarlett]

Windows XP version 5.1
The (C) is 1985-2001