Booting speeds

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,787
Location
Finchley, London
Why do some people say their pc boot time is xx amount of seconds, but only count it from the windows logo? I'm considering getting an SSD, but for me, the whole process from pressing the on button from cold to getting to a working desktop, or pressing reboot to then getting back to a working desktop, including the POST time, is what I consider the total time it takes to boot my pc. Why would someone say their pc boots in 10 seconds if they're only taking it from the windows logo, isn't that like saying you're going to time how long it takes to get from your house to a friend 100 miles away and only starting the timing past some service station 60 miles into your journey?
 
Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2010
Posts
915
Because everything before the windows logo is dependent on the board so makes the test unfair if you take it into account.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,787
Location
Finchley, London
Because everything before the windows logo is dependent on the board so makes the test unfair if you take it into account.

Ok, that's great for test purposes. But if it takes you 10 seconds from windows to desktop, but 25 seconds from post to desktop, and someone asks you how long is it going to take to boot your pc up from cold/off, what are you going to tell him, 10 seconds or 25 seconds? Surely the important thing to know is the complete process from off to desktop?
 
Soldato
Joined
11 May 2007
Posts
8,905
Location
Surrey
We have a stupid fast Z800 at work that takes about 3 mins from button press to login window... Takes longer if we forget to press F1 because the Mobo thinks it doesn't have enough memory to boot one of the cards (which works fine).
 
Soldato
Joined
31 May 2010
Posts
4,339
Location
Bedfordshire
Kinda of agree with Merlin,
I always thought when people said "15 seconds boot up" it was from pressing the power button, so thanks to this thread, its only from the Win Logo!
My kids pc, takes around 15-20 seconds with an old mechanical harddrive, (from Win logo). its way faster than my own, which takes about 5 mins :( ethernet really slow to boot, despite updating driver :mad:
 
Caporegime
Joined
11 Jul 2009
Posts
27,049
Location
BenefitStreetBirmingham
use bootracer,it calculates time from powering on to logon screen and then to desktop and gives a total boot time

2lw3crt.jpg


http://www.greatis.com/bootracer/download.htm
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
6,819
Location
Bath
If you search in this forums section for reboot timer we did a little study when SSD's first came out to see how much of an improvement you got doing a shutdown and reboot. It used a VB script that would auto restart your PC and log the time then Run again once the PC had booted ad compare the times. Average was around 45s I think. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2003
Posts
14,475
I couldn't tell you how long mine takes, I'm rarely in the room when it does as I press the button then go get a cup of tea.. just habit from the old days!

Seriously though with an SSD the only thing slowing it does is my SATA/RAID cards but we're not talking the 6min boot times of HP ML350 servers here..
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2004
Posts
20,929
Cannot measure cold boot time including any ROMS/BIOS/UEFI that get loaded up as it offers no meaningful comparison.

What good is me telling you it takes me 20 seconds from power press to desktop when 5 of those seconds is RAID initialisation?
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2004
Posts
8,696
If you search in this forums section for reboot timer we did a little study when SSD's first came out to see how much of an improvement you got doing a shutdown and reboot. It used a VB script that would auto restart your PC and log the time then Run again once the PC had booted ad compare the times. Average was around 45s I think. :)

My pc boots up in about 10secs from windows logo and 44secs from a windows restart thing. :D

image1yw.jpg


Is windows 7 booting while the logo animates or does it wait to continue the boot process?

Mine doesnt wait while the window logo finishes animating
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2004
Posts
8,696
Also, when I had a hard drive for my boot drive and when windows had booted it would take a few more mins for my frequently used apps to load instantly, as windows does the superfetching stuff.. But since having the SSD everything is instant from the moment windows has booted.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,535
My PC cold boots within 20 secs & is perfectly useable including the internet ;) the windows logo disappears within 10 secs. Thats about the top speed right now 20 secs or slightly less from cold boot all the latest most expensive SSD are within a 1-2 few secs of each other now.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,787
Location
Finchley, London
My i5 laptop boots in 52 seconds.

My desktop however, 83 seconds :(
It used to be 59 seconds. Time to buy a Crucial M4 64GB SSD and clean W7 reinstall methinks.
The novelty of 20 to 40 second boot times would be amazing to experience.
 
Back
Top Bottom