XP slow boot help.

[Countcussy]

I have once again been asked to "clean up" someone else`s PC, and bring windows up to date, as they are still on dial up.

Dell P4 system with 512gb ram.

System takes over 5 minutes to boot. Once its in, its not bad, speed wise, and I am working on that. Its a bit clogged up etc, but at least there is not 42 viruses like last time I did this PC.

Its the boot time thats got me stumped. With it being a Dell, there is not a lot in the way of hardware. HD was full of errors which have now sorted, but its very noisy and I suspect could be on its way out. Will run a check this evening. Have checked the transfer/DMA settings and everything looks fine. No probs in device manager either. Msconfig startup tab has very little in it.

If HD proves OK, Can you give me any pointers of where to start looking as regards the boot?

Also, when I do a restart, I get a grey bar that fills with black lines before the windows logo and the scrolling coloured bar. Is this something to do with hibernation? Not seen that for ages and can`t remember what it is.

 

[Countcussy]

Thanks for your help guys.

Just got home and downloaded the WD diagnostics. The drive is a WD600BB 60gig ATA.

Ran the quick test and the drive immediately failed the SMART status, so my gut feeling looks like it was correct.

But, would I get that error if the drive was not SMART compatible? Its a pretty old drive. How long has the SMART system been commonplace on drives? Or has it always been there?

Thanks again.

 

[Countcussy]

Further tests indicate the hard drive is on its very, very last legs.

Thanks for the help.

Btw, If any mods are reading, I seem unable to reply to the Windows 7 beta thread. Error, page not found.