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Intel X25M cannot beat 30s bootup time

NovemberWhiskey

NovemberWhiskey

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 18, 2009
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Can anyone help me out here? I have a 80GB Intel X25-M G2 that cannot boot in less than 30s.

I keep reading that people get bootup times as low as 15s, and I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong.

I am using about 30 GB of SSD space, and I use a 500 GB 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus XT hybrid as a scratch disk (downloads, documents, pictures, etc.) in the optibay.

I just did a clean install of snow leopard yesterday, formatted my X25 (wrote zeros, mac [journaled]), installed SL, updated, etc. The bootup time went up to over one minute.

I reinstalled snow leopard again (did not format this time) and it went down to 33s. I then reset the pram and it went down to 27s.

Now, it's back around 30s.

Any tips?
 
Apparently to get a drive back to "fresh" you need to boot off a linux live disk and run a secure erase. Problem is that the secure erase doesn't work on a MBP from what I've read, so you have to attach the SSD via en external caddy or make use of SATA's hot swappable and plug the internal SATA cable in after booting from the live CD.

Formatting with zeros is no good as zeros are still data.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
Can anyone help me out here? I have a 80GB Intel X25-M G2 that cannot boot in less than 30s.

I keep reading that people get bootup times as low as 15s, and I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong.

I am using about 30 GB of SSD space, and I use a 500 GB 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus XT hybrid as a scratch disk (downloads, documents, pictures, etc.) in the optibay.

I just did a clean install of snow leopard yesterday, formatted my X25 (wrote zeros, mac [journaled]), installed SL, updated, etc. The bootup time went up to over one minute.

I reinstalled snow leopard again (did not format this time) and it went down to 33s. I then reset the pram and it went down to 27s.

Now, it's back around 30s.

Any tips?
Click to expand...

Why would you ever write zeros to an SSD? Not that that should affect boot times, but you might want to consider issuing the secure erase ATA command via linux to bring it back to 'factory freshness' and then reinstall OS X from there. Mine boots in about 20 seconds, but worrying about boot time seems to be a waste of time because it's such a variable process.

TheBritishBloke said:
Even my 5400RPM Standard Drive boots faster than that with all my content on it..
Click to expand...

No it doesn't.

runebinder said:
Apparently to get a drive back to "fresh" you need to boot off a linux live disk and run a secure erase. Problem is that the secure erase doesn't work on a MBP from what I've read, so you have to attach the SSD via en external caddy or make use of SATA's hot swappable and plug the internal SATA cable in after booting from the live CD.

Formatting with zeros is no good as zeros are still data.
Click to expand...

This does work on a Mac, you just have to hot plug the drive once booted to the Linux disc which requires leaving the bottom casing of the MBP off. Once you have done it once it isn't hard at all.
 
I have a Samsung 256GB PM800 SSD & had an issue where it would take about 30+ seconds to boot my MBP (Mid '09 2.8 GHz 8GB Ram). Thankfully my MBP is boots in verbose & I got to see what was slowing it down. It kept getting stuck at Waiting for DSMOS. Unfortunately I couldn't find a solution, but it just kind of went away & now it boots in 15 seconds (from power button to desktop). Try switching to verbose boot & check the text to see whats bogging it down.


As MBHockey said, to get secure erase to work on a mac you'll have to hot swap the drive. Apple's EFI disables the command in the HDD/SDD at boot, that's why hot swapping is necessary (some of my motherboards disables secure erase too, its not just Apple). If you have access to a PC (Vista or Win 7), you can wipe solid state media using the command line (diskpart).
 
Mine was 14 sec, until I loaded Parallels and Win7. Now I'm somewhere in the 20's. Anyone know why adding the VM increases boot time for OSX?
 
TheBritishBloke said:
I knew you'd say that...

If you're so desperate, I'll post one when I get my Mac back next week.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind seeing that vid as well (not that I'm desperate to see it, just curious if it is feasibly possible.)
When I had my original 5400 HDD in, it took a hell of a lot longer than 25 seconds. Closer to a minute. I can't go back now after having my SSD installed.
 
Can someone link me to a step-by-step to wipe the SSD?

What is Linux Live and how do I get it?

Is there any other way to do it? Any instructions for the PC method?

By hot-swapping, you mean just removing the SSD and installing it in a PC?

Thanks!
 
How much RAM are you running? If 8GB its going to take longer than 4 because it has to check twice as much.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
Can someone link me to a step-by-step to wipe the SSD?

What is Linux Live and how do I get it?

Is there any other way to do it? Any instructions for the PC method?

By hot-swapping, you mean just removing the SSD and installing it in a PC?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

For a live linux cd, do a search for Ubuntu. Download the .iso file, burn to disk and boot from it, you'll get an option to try without installing or something to that effect. Choose that and it'll load the OS from the CD.

Have a look and see if Intel have any tools for their SSD, they may have a Windows secure erase program for Windows?

Hot swapping means plugging a SATA cable into the HDD after the computer has been turned on, something you couldn't for with IDE as it wouldn't be recognised. It's bit like the move from PS2 (like IDE) Keyboards that wouldn't be recognised by the computer if you plugged them in after you turned them on, to USB (like SATA), Keyboards that the computer will detect even though you plug them in after power up.
 
TheBritishBloke said:
@MBHockey

My MBP boots in about 25seconds... So yes it does boot faster than his 30.
Click to expand...

Odd I have the same specs, did a before and after set of timings when I changed from a 5400RPM to my Vertex 2E and was getting boot times of 44 seconds with the 5400RPM.

What make is the one in yours? Mine was a Hitachi.
 
just timed it on my mbp with my 160gb intel g1.
16 seconds from the push of the power button to password prompt. I'll get a video later.
 
Ive got a month old MBP 17" core i7, with 4gb ram and a 500 gb ATA 7200rpm drive

Ive used about 50gb of space on it

it boots from pressing button to password prompt in 17 seconds flat.

hope helps!
 
Do a SMC/PMU reset, and a NVRAM/PRAM reset. Cut my time at the white screen before the apple logo down a lot.
 
runebinder said:
For a live linux cd, do a search for Ubuntu. Download the .iso file, burn to disk and boot from it, you'll get an option to try without installing or something to that effect. Choose that and it'll load the OS from the CD.

Have a look and see if Intel have any tools for their SSD, they may have a Windows secure erase program for Windows?

Hot swapping means plugging a SATA cable into the HDD after the computer has been turned on, something you couldn't for with IDE as it wouldn't be recognised. It's bit like the move from PS2 (like IDE) Keyboards that wouldn't be recognised by the computer if you plugged them in after you turned them on, to USB (like SATA), Keyboards that the computer will detect even though you plug them in after power up.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much!

Can you explain why I need to hotswap here? From what I understand, I need to boot from the Ubuntu iso on a windows PC, and then plug in my SSD? Why not just plug in the SSD to the PC and boot from the iso file? Does it matter?
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
Thanks so much!

Can you explain why I need to hotswap here? From what I understand, I need to boot from the Ubuntu iso on a windows PC, and then plug in my SSD? Why not just plug in the SSD to the PC and boot from the iso file? Does it matter?
Click to expand...

The EFI locks the SSD in a 'frozen' state as a security measure. The only way to unfreeze it is to plug it in after your computer has already booted to the Linux LiveCD (whichever flavor you choose...i use Kubuntu for this). Don't worry, the intel x25-m fully supports hot plugging.

Once booted to the disc, and have plugged in the SSD, follow these instructions:

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase
 
Wait, so I don't need a PC (i.e. Windows) for this?

I can just use my MBP, boot Ubuntu, and then hotswap my SSD and follow those instructions?
 
Also, how do we know the name of the drive?

In this step, they want "X" to match our device, but how do we know what our device name is?:

Step 1 - Make sure the drive Security is not frozen:

Issue the following command, where "X" matches your device (eg. sda).

hdparm -I /dev/X

Is it necessary to set the password, or can we skip to the erase command?
 
Unless you have dumped off a lot of files from the OS, I would be stunned to see a 5400rpm drive boot in 25 seconds. Show us proof, please.

BTW, my cheap Corsair Nova boots in about 15 seconds.
 
I have the 15" i7 4gb ram and the stock 5400 drive. bootcamp installed and I can get into mac os x in 30.5 seconds (button press to desktop). so it is possible! (almost) :)
 
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