Speeding up boot times

[SteveC]

Hi all,

I need to make a PC of mine boot in the shortest time possible.

It's Win98se at the moment, but I could change that to Win98 rev 1 or WinME. No other choices - maybe could go win2k if I had to.

System spec:

Celeron 400 (can't be changed)
Intel 810 mainboard (can't be changed)
64Mb RAM (Can increase if needs be)
4Gb HDD (Can change, but must be a 2.5" HDD)
Onboard Intel VGA/Audio
Onboard LAN

Now, I have to have the audio, but don't need the LAN or VGA drivers to load. I also need to load USB drivers.

What can I do to decrease boot up times? I could remove all fonts, start up programs, config/autoexec, start up stuff in registry. Any other ideas?


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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Technoid]

AXCEL216's MAX Speeed WinDOwS Tricks Secrets Bugs Fixes

[Guru]

Go here foe some info! http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/boot-time/

[Nuno]

From all MS OS I´ve gone thought, WinME is the faster booter. Of course, win95 could boot faster on a fresh install, but the ton of patches needed to run it properly would slow it down.

Win2k doesn´t boot that fast. It isn´t no slouch either, but it´s very clear that boot time wasn´t on of the major concern while coding the OS.

So my opinion is: Get ME, disable all hardware that you don´t use in bios (USB/Serials/Paralel), don´t install too much programs that slow windows boot up, and please correctly configure Onboard LAN.

[Guru]

If the hd is an 5400 model don't change it becouse a 7200 one will increase your boot time!

[SteveC]

Thanks guys!

I just thought of something else - what if I reformatted the HDD as FAT16? I'm sure that FAT 16 is read faster under DOS (i.e. windows boot up) than FAT 32?

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[ayoub_ibrahim]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by SteveC:
Thanks guys!

I just thought of something else - what if I reformatted the HDD as FAT16? I'm sure that FAT 16 is read faster under DOS (i.e. windows boot up) than FAT 32?

</font>

isn't fat 16 limited to 2 Gb hdd size??

[SteveC]

Yeah - I'll have windows on a small FAT 16 partition, and everything else on a FAT 32 partition.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Technoid]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Guru:
If the hd is an 5400 model don't change it becouse a 7200 one will increase your boot time!</font>

My IBM 7200RPM booted much faster than my quantum 5400!

Please give us a litle more facts about that one..

[Jorden]

Good link, Technoid !! I bookmarked it, although when I ever get into problems with my PC, I can't reach that site ofcourse

Jord.

[Chris B]

an obvious one, but i´ll say it anyway... don´t let your bios autodetect your HD´s

[Technoid]

Most of the fun exclusive things are offered in a zipfile

[Jorden]

Added the link to the FAQs, with credit to Technoid

[xortam]

I haven't read the links yet but you should disable the NDIS drivers from loading ... they're the biggest time consumer at boot up.

[Wombat]

Also tweak the BIOS ram check, make sure the boot order is set for HD first.