Slow boot times

[MeSnowStalker]

Hey guys I have a real prob here. I have built and setup many computers over
the years but recently I have been having this problem. When I do a clean
install starting from FDISK and all that good stuff and I install Windows XP
Pro my boot time is great. Say about 7 seconds from the time I get to the
windows is shutting down screen until it goes black to start its reboot. But
when I install Office XP Pro right after windows and get all the updates and
such my boot time goes from the 7 seconds to almost 2 minutes. I am told by
some that is still a good boot time but I know for a fact that on other PC's
I have built the boot time on them is greater than 7 seconds but much much
less than 2 minutes. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[DL]

Have to ask, why are you using FDISK?

 

[MeSnowStalker]

I am from the old school and using FDISK is the only way I know of to really
and completely clean a HD. If there is a faster and better way I am all ears.

 

[DL]

Yes, Boot from winxp (or win2k) cd it has all the tools to Partition/Format
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[MeSnowStalker]

Thanks DL now do you have any idea about my listed problem or can you point
me to someone who does?

 

[DL]

As a new installation of win, did you install mobo chipset and other hw
drivers from the manu, or did you rely on win drivers?
Have you an AV app installed? - some place quite a load on the sys, Symantec
(consumer) and McAfee often named.
Do you have many start up apps running, usually shown in the task bar? or
can be seen using msconfig.
Do you have long boot times on starting win, as appossed to rebooting, which
is what you 'complain' about.
During a reboot win is unloading running apps and drivers.
From your safe mode screen, you can enable boot logging, to check what
exactly is loading.