When starting up Windows 7 in Boot Camp, drivers sometimes load slowly?

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When starting up Windows 7 in Boot Camp, drivers sometimes load slowly?

I recently removed my Windows 7 32-bit installation from Boot Camp and instead installed Windows 7 64-bit, on my iMac mid-2010 21".

However, for some reason, every once in a while when I start up Windows 7, something (perhaps the drivers?) will load slowly, because even after the desktop appears, the time briefly shows the date for "2001-01-01 12:00 am" (or something similar, can't remember exact date) and the system tray will have "blank" icons (the icons don't appear, but the system tray acts as if they are there). In order to fix this, I restart Windows.

Anyone know why this happens, and how I can fix it? The only thing I can find online is a corrupted system tray, but this is definitely more than that because restarting will fix it, and also because this happens on a brand new installation of Windows 7 without any other software installed (besides the standard Boot Camp drivers).

I have two external hard drives attached (one is split into two partitions, both for data, and the other drive is for Time Machine; both drives are 2 TB each). For some reason, I feel that they could perhaps be related because when I start up Windows, I have to wait a few seconds for Windows to "load" the HDs; during this period, the mouse can not move.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3, 16 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 15, 2013 6:56 PM

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Answer 1

ReMacs

Level 2

295 points

Feb 16, 2013 9:03 AM in response to GaryKing

1) this happens on a brand new installation of Windows 7 without any other software installed (besides the standard Boot Camp drivers).
If this is true, you have a whole lot of Windows 7 updating to do before using it.
a) First, get Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx
b) Second, you will find Windows Update in the Start Menu or Control Panel. This will take a while.

2) I have two external hard drives attached.
Windows does not need a Time Machine External drive. If you don't have to have any external for Windows boot process, I guess you could wait until Windows was booted to attach external when you need it for some reason. I only use external for OS monthly backups, sharing same USB drive for OSX & Windows.

In Mac Pro, I disable internal Mac Disk in Device Manager. I enable it if I want data from it (seldom). Windows 7 & 8 are partitioned on other internal drive.

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