I may be the only one experiencing this, but after installing Windows 7 and loading some games on it, my startup time takes about 5-7 minutes to fully get everything loaded. This includes the Bootcamp Control panel and Symantec. My MPB 13" is stock and no changes have been made to it and have I not installed any other software. Once it fully boots, everything is fast. I think I noticed the boot time slowing up after I installed Parallels 5 on the OSX side. What can I do to figure out what is causing everything to load slowly and hopefully fix it?
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Windows 7 Slow Startup
- Thread starter gman901
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This is most likely due to your slow HDD which I suppose is a 5400RPM 2.5" Laptop HDD. I strongly recommend you get either a 7200RPM HDD or a 160GB Intel SSD. Win7 will run slow on a 5400RPM HDD. Go check your Windows Experience index found under SYSTEM in the control panel. Check your scores or run the benchmark if you haven't yet and check what your bottleneck is (slowest part of your system CPU, RAM, GPU, or HDD).
Thanks for your response! I am thinking about upgrading to a SSD HD, but I want to get the 250 GB SSD when prices come down. I think between $400-$500 is the target price range when I bite. Something I noticed, is that after I uninstalled some gamespy program, the reboot seemed to boot a lot faster. Here's my most recent Windows performance score:
Overall - 5.3
Processor - 6.1
Memory - 5.9
Graphics - 5.3
Gaming Graphics - 5.5
Primary Hard Disk - 5.9
Overall - 5.3
Processor - 6.1
Memory - 5.9
Graphics - 5.3
Gaming Graphics - 5.5
Primary Hard Disk - 5.9
A 5400 RPM drive would not cause Windows to take over 5 minutes to boot. If you are using a pirated copy of Windows 7, startup hacks can cause the system to hang on a Mac because the bios is on top of the EFI system. I've seen Parallels cause boot camp to slow if you installed boot camp for use in Parallels. It creates two hardware profiles for Windows, which could be the cause of the problem.
It could also be a hardware issue including a failing hard drive or faulty RAM.
Steve
It could also be a hardware issue including a failing hard drive or faulty RAM.
Steve
It's definitely a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade that I bought on Amazon. After the most recent bootcamp update, my start up time is now 3 minutes 11 seconds. I do have the latest version of Parallels 5 installed. Should I remove Parallels and see what happens?
Well, it's only about 3 minutes now, but at least 1 minute is a black screen before the normal blue boot up screen begins. Is there something causing my screen to go black for such a long time? Also, I have been counting the boot time until everything is fully loaded, including my Antivirus and Apple Control Panel.
Yeah, XP ran great with bootcamp. I am toying with the idea of uninstalling Parallels 5 and see what happens. I just do not want to have to go through the whole Microsoft activation over the phone again.
I uninstalled Parallels 5 and noticed a big improvement in my boot up time. I went from 3:11 to just over 2 minutes and 30 seconds for a full boot up. I am going to wait a bit before installing Parallels 5 again.
A black screen with a blinking white cursor in the top left corner? Also, what avtivirus are you using?
I'm getting that problem.
Running Win7 with Bootcamp 3.1 drivers, Norton Anti-virus/Internet security.
Using rEFIt as well, and I do have VMWare Fusion installed in SL too.
The blinking cursor problem only happens when booting natively into Win7. When using VMWare, cursor shows for 1-2 seconds and then goes to the "Starting Windows" screen.
I have Windows 7 installed via Boot Camp and Parallels 5 on my 27" i5 iMac. Booting to Windows 7 via Boot Camp takes less than a minute every time. Booting to Windows 7 from OSX using Parallels sometimes takes 5-10 minutes before I can effectively use it. This was true before AND after updating the Boot Camp drivers to 3.1.
Getting slow boot too. Blank screen for 33 sec. Then blinking cursor ~1 sec, and windows starts loading ~20sec.
Windows 7 64 bit.
Macbook 6,1 (and MB4,1 slow aswell)
Bootcamp 3.1
Intel SSD x25-m
Since it's the blank screen causing the problem, i'm guessing this has nothing to do with drivers. When bootcamping with windows the partition table is changed from GUID to MBP. Maybe the Open Firmware EFI is slow at detecting/handling this?
Windows 7 64 bit.
Macbook 6,1 (and MB4,1 slow aswell)
Bootcamp 3.1
Intel SSD x25-m
Since it's the blank screen causing the problem, i'm guessing this has nothing to do with drivers. When bootcamping with windows the partition table is changed from GUID to MBP. Maybe the Open Firmware EFI is slow at detecting/handling this?
Fixed it! 
"Getting slow boot too. Blank screen for 33 sec. Then blinking cursor ~1 sec, and windows starts loading ~20sec."
Fixed it 8 sec of blank screen, 19 sec windows booting.
NB. I'm not dualbooting, dunno how it will affect if OS X is also installed. Guessing you'll be fine since dualbooting is the purpose of the tool.
EasyBCD 2.0 beta build 76.
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642
(you need to register forum account...)
Install EasyBCD.
Click Manage Bootloader
Click Write MBR
Exit and reboot.
Done
Specs in post above.
"Getting slow boot too. Blank screen for 33 sec. Then blinking cursor ~1 sec, and windows starts loading ~20sec."
Fixed it
8 sec of blank screen, 19 sec windows booting.NB. I'm not dualbooting, dunno how it will affect if OS X is also installed. Guessing you'll be fine since dualbooting is the purpose of the tool.
EasyBCD 2.0 beta build 76.
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642
(you need to register forum account...)
Install EasyBCD.
Click Manage Bootloader
Click Write MBR
Exit and reboot.
Done
Specs in post above.
I would NOT use this tool without having a backup first of both Windows and Mac OS X. Writing a new MBR will most likely cause OS X to no longer boot and damage the GUID partition table. Someone will need to test it first.Fixed it
NB. I'm not dualbooting, dunno how it will affect if OS X is also installed. Guessing you'll be fine since dualbooting is the purpose of the tool.
EasyBCD 2.0 beta build 76.
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642
(you need to register forum account...)
Install EasyBCD.
Click Manage Bootloader
Click Write MBR
Exit and reboot.
Done
Specs in post above.
Default Boot Camp install is a hybrid GPT/MBR setup. Really GPT with a "protective" MBR for legacy OSes.
B
Found a fix!
Try this guys...fixed the black screen with blinking cursor problem. http://viperfx07.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-fixing-slow-booting-in-windows.html
Try this guys...fixed the black screen with blinking cursor problem. http://viperfx07.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-fixing-slow-booting-in-windows.html
My understanding is that this has to do with licensing issues (i.e.; using a torrented/d'led version of Windows 7)
the SLIC remedy that kjaxplicit24 mentions above has worked for a few people, as posted here:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r22969889-OS-X-Bootcamp-Windows-7-Ultra-Slow-Boot~start=20
Cam
the SLIC remedy that kjaxplicit24 mentions above has worked for a few people, as posted here:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r22969889-OS-X-Bootcamp-Windows-7-Ultra-Slow-Boot~start=20
Cam
So, I am thinking that the reason why my boot times are so slow is related to how I installed Windows 7 with Bootcamp Assistant. I installed it using my upgrade copy of Windows 7 and when I tried to activate it, the OS would not accept the activation. So I did an upgrade of Win 7 over the install of Win 7, and then tried to activate. It worked fine. I am using the 64-bit Windows 7 version. Everything works great once it boots up, but I have to wait through slow load times. I am wondering if I should buy an OEM version of Windows 7 and do a clean install. I just hate having to reinstall all of my games again.
did you hear any grinding sound from your macbook or mini? I installed W7 and hear the hard disk grinding when im in OS X. As for the blinking cursor i will follow what is suggested here.
thanks.
Thanks, I think I am going to go back to XP and see how things progress with Bootcamp drivers for Windows 7 64 bit.
You can fix the blinking cursor slow boot in Windows 7 by repairing the Master Boot Record.
1. Restart your computer into Windows.
2. While Windows is loading, press the F8 (play/pause) key about every second.
3. Select Recovery Mode and press Enter.
4. Click Repair your computer. (Command Prompt)
5. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then 4. click Next.
6. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
7. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
Type (these commands are safe)
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Code: Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
*Press ENTER after each command.*
*Restart your computer.*
1. Restart your computer into Windows.
2. While Windows is loading, press the F8 (play/pause) key about every second.
3. Select Recovery Mode and press Enter.
4. Click Repair your computer. (Command Prompt)
5. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then 4. click Next.
6. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
7. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
Type (these commands are safe)
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Code: Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
*Press ENTER after each command.*
*Restart your computer.*