Long Pause During Windows 2000 Startup Process

ID: Q242518

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

After you choose to start Windows 2000 from the Boot menu, you may experience a long delay (or pause) before your computer finishes starting. Note that this delay may range from 10 seconds to a minute. Also, this delay occurs before the Starting Windows progress bar appears, and your computer may appear to stop responding (hang) during this time.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if Windows 2000 is installed on a drive or a partition to which Windows 2000 cannot gain access with normal Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) INT-13 or INT-13 extension calls. When Windows 2000 Setup determines it cannot use BIOS calls to start, it uses scsi() or signature() syntax in the Boot.ini file instead of multi() syntax.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about signature syntax, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q227704 Windows 2000 May Use Signature() Syntax in the Boot.ini File

When booting a system that requires scsi() or signature() syntax, Ntldr loads an additional device driver (Ntbootdd.sys) to initialize and interrogate the boot controllers in your computer. Ntldr then seeks the associated boot drive attached to the controller to finish loading the kernel. These additional operations take more time in Windows 2000 because of the Plug and Play nature of the operating system.

This behavior is expected, however, Windows 2000 Setup may use scsi() or signature() syntax, even if your computer can boot using the normal BIOS calls. This may occur on Integrated Drive Electronics-based computers when using a large capacity boot drive. In this case, you can try adding an additional entry in the Boot.ini file and use multi() syntax on the new entry to boot from. Note that if this works, your computer starts without pausing.

For additional information about ARC names in the Boot.ini file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q102873 Boot.ini and ARC Path Naming Conventions and Usage

Additional query words: freeze start-up hesitate ataboot.sys

Keywords : kbui winboot
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb