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Suraj R.

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 17, 2013
179
1
Canada
I have the new 2013 13" MBA (i5/8/128). When I turn it on without my external hard drive in, it boots in 11-12 seconds cold. But when there is an external HD plugged in, it takes closer to 30-40 seconds. Its not a huge deal but does anyone know how to fix this? I'm assuming that the Air is trying to see if it can boot into the external HD but I already have my internal SSD configured as the startup disk.
 
Could be the drive.

Is the drive externally powered or is it bus powered? A couple of thoughts.

If it is externally powered, do you leave it powered on then plug it into your MBA before booting? Is it bus powered? Either condition could cause the slowdown as some disk drive manufacturers 'spin down' the platters during idle times. That spin up time could be adding to your boot times. As the mac boots it probes for external devices. You could, assuming you're not booting from the external...

1. Leave the drive powered down.
2. Boot your MBA
3. Plug in the drive after booted and power it up.

It will mount automatically.
 
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