Question : Windows 2003 Very Slow [Bootup / Hibernate / Performance]

Greetings Friends,

I'm having a serious problem and I'm about to format my hard disk partition to re-install Fresh Windows 2003. However, before going to do that, I'm trying to find solutions so I can save many hours to setup all softwares/setup again.

Problem:
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When I start Windows Server 2003 it bootup is very slow. It takes approx. 1 or ~ 2 minutes until it arrives on CTRL+ALT screen.

When this problem occured?
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I mostly faced this problem when a sudden Electricity shutdown occurs OR Electricity Voltage suddendly goes down for a sec and PC restarts.

Rectified before?
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Yes, This problem happened before too but automatically disappeared as well when I tried to check wires, hard disk cable etc. But I'm not sure if that caused this reason.

Note:
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I also have Windows XP on another drive and it starts fine and there is no performance or hibernate or statup issue.


I'm sure someone can help me on Expert Exchange on this issue.

Thanks,
- Zeeshan

Answer : Windows 2003 Very Slow [Bootup / Hibernate / Performance]

If Windows detects read/write errors on an HDD it can automatically lower the data transfer rate of your HDD from UDMA6 -> UDMA5 -> UDMA4 etc... If the errors persist you can end up in PIO mode which will make your system run *really* slowly.

The fix is simply right click the IDE Channel in device manager and uninstall it. Reboot the machine and Windows will automatically re-install the IDE Channel in UDMA mode. Make sure you have transfer mode set to "DMA if available"