Re: Bootup takes 25 mins

=?Utf-8?B?ZHZkODg4?= added these comments in the current
discussion du jour ...

I have Windows XP Pro on a 5-year old computer P2-2.4GHz.
Normally it takes 2-3 mins to bootup. Recently my 80GB HD
died. I paid for a data recovery firm to make an image of my
drive and they put it on a 160GB internal HD so I can use it
in my computer. They told me I have a few bad blocks but they
are able to copy something like 99.9% of my blocks over.

If I boot up in Safe Mode, it takes 1 min.
If I boot up in Normal Mode, it takes 25 mins to get to the
user login screen. After I enter my password, it takes another
35 mins to start everything up.

Something is clearly amiss here, probably caused by the forensics
guy you hired to recover your data. Besides a repair install, I'd
suggest that you backup all of YOUR data and do a full nuke and
reinstall of Windows and your apps on the new HD, along with
kissing up to MS to activate on new HW.

Question: Does WinXP expect to run on the original HD (ie, it
detects any MAC ID of the drive)? Is it purposely booting up
slowly because I am using a different HD?

No.

The second time I tried it, after the 35 mins, I couldn't
start up any programs.

Sounds like the O/S kernel and/or part(s) of the Registry are
corrupt or key drivers that do not load in Safe Mode are mortally
wounded. You need to fix the O/S or you won't be able to
continue. Imaging a wrecked HD or one that is infected is
guaranteed to fail. The recovery image is really intended for you
to get YOUR data off the crashed old drive NOT to get it to
immediately run XP.

The third time I tried it, after I put in the password, it
doesn't go past the login screen at all!

I've only tried bootup 3 times.

I just tried Safe Mode again and it booted up in 1 min and I
could start any program.

That's because only the very minimum to get the O/S running loads
in Safe Mode.

--
HP, aka Jerry

"Surely you jest - and don't call me Shirley!" - from the movie
"Airplane!"
.