Slow Boot

[davecabezo]

Hi,
My system is Motherboard:- Gigabyte 81875 with Bios V6 running windows XP pro and a Pentium 4 2.8 with 2gb DDR ram.
I've got a problem with a new HDD. About a 3 weeks ago I had a HDD failure but luckily I had a mirror image of my master HDD (160gb as master on ide1 with a DVD rom drive) on a secondary HDD 160gb as secondary on ide2with a second DVD rom drive) in the computer.
I had disabled that HDD and only connected it when I wanted to update my mirror image. I used Acronis to do the work.
I bought a new 250gb HDD and used Acronis to reload my operating system from HDD2.When I first did the update everything seemed to be working OK but suddenly the bootup time on the new HDD went to 8mins.
so I disconnected the new HDD and booted from the old HDD which booted in 4.5 mins. So I gather that it is not the software but a problem with the hardware setup. Just to prove that the new HDD was OK I
reformatted the new drive and re-installed XP Pro. The bootup time was only just over a minute so the HDD I assume is OK.
I've tried to contact Gigabyte but after 4days I've still not had a response. I understand that there is a problem with older Bios not being able to recognize a larger HDD but as the HDD seemed to function OK initially
I'm not so sure this is my problem also the motherboard has a SATA connector, does this mean I can use a SATA HDD as well as an IDE?
perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.

[DukeIcewalker]

Make sure to check the jumpers on the HDD.  If your P4 mobo can only handle 1.5 gb/s it may be wishful thinking that you can set the jumpers to 3.0 gb/s.

I'm guessing, though, that if your drive has SATA connectors it may be capable of 3.0 gb/s.  Could be worth checking the manual.

[patio]

How exactly did you create the image file in Acronis ? ?
Did you Verify the image after creating it ? ?
What ver. of Acronis ?

[davecabezo]

Hi Patio,
The Acronis is version 8.0 and I used the Disk Clone part of Acronis and the Automatic function. As I said I formatted the HDD and then did another Disk Clone and I still have the same problem. I've tried to contact Gigabyte to ask about the SATA connection as well but to date no reply.

Regards,
Dave

[patio]

It still could be the image itself.
One of the important tools included with Acronis since version4 or so is a tool that's used to 'verify" the image after it's created.

Another issue may be the SATA drivers on the image.
Is the new 250 the same brand as the one the image is from ? ?

[davecabezo]

Hi Patio,
The HDDs are different makes, the 160gb HDD is a Maxtor and the 250gb is a Western Digital. Both the HDDs are on IDE 160gb on IDE channel2 & the 250gb on IDE channel 1 so I don't think the SATA drivers come into the equation, or do they?
Also in acronis, I have found the Check image tool but it seems as if all it does is check the image and does not compare with the original image, I suppose the program would show up any faults on the image but do you think there is a fault or just a problem.
What program would you use to create a duplicate image on a secondary HDD just in case of main HDD failure?

Regards,

Dave

[patio]

I would and do use Acronis for that task...the image tool does indeed compare the 2 for discrepancies.
I usually run it right after creating an image and before burning it to DVD...