Windows taking 2+ minutes to boot up after a restart, but only 5 seconds after a shutdown.

HI Tony. I'm Greg, an eleven years awarded MVP, Volunteer Moderator, and Independent Advisor here to help you until this is resolved.

Yes, the test you ran can tell us that the hard drive is interfering somehow.

The main way it can interfere is if it was a Windows drive at one point and still has old WIndows system partitions on it, or even was not properly wiped of boot code and then reformatted for data. Do you know the history of this drive?

It can also mean the drive is failing and causing some kind of drag on the system. You can run a SMART test on it by installing Crystal Disk Info to get an idea of it's condition: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInf...

Or it can simply mean it needs to be reformatted after being re-initialized from MBR format to GPT data format:

To clean the drive of partitions and old code, reinitialize and wipe reformat, move the data off to a folder on Desktop, then run Diskpart Clean Command followed by the command Convert GPT:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase...

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-h...

If you want me to look it over for other clues, post a screenshot of Disk Management, which I read like a doctor reads X-rays. Follow the steps here so I can see everything needed to advise you: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/foru...

I hope this helps. Based on what you report back I can answer any questions and may have other steps to perform. If you'll wait to rate whether my post was helpful, I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

______________________________________________

Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

Let Memtest run overnight to stress the RAM and maximize it's effectiveness.

Run Crucial System Scanner to check the RAM is properly spec'd and configured, what upgrade options exist for first quality RAM: https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/systemscanner?cm...

There are known issues with MSFS 2020 installation here:

https://bit-tech.net/features/gaming/pc/microso...

https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-flight-simu... (Avoid ad links which intrude into editorial copy, especially avoid Restoro ad)

https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxGamePassPC/comment...

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-microsof...

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ar...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fazJ1q95p0A

Contact Support:

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ar...

I hope this helps. Based on what you report back I can answer any questions and may have other steps to perform. If you'll wait to rate whether my post was helpful, I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

______________________________________________

Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

Ok so I WAS running that western digital diagnostic tool overnight because it said it will take several hours...I woke up and it was still going and said it still had 3 hours left.

Well, I need to use my PC so I started doing other things and then my PC BSOD with error WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR

I don't think it's related to that hard drive, because this keeps happening when I try to run Flight Simulator 2020. It has BSOD crashed more than 3 times when trying to install the game, which is being installed to the SSD which has never had an issue.

I think there might be something wrong with my RAM, so now I've started running Memtest86 from a flash drive. So far my PC has rebooted twice when running that software... My RAM is supposed to be 3200MHz, 16-18-18-38 but it is defaulting to 2400MHz in the BIOS. The PC is even rebooting during memtest86 at stock settings...So that doesn't look good.

While these are two separate issues, the PC still takes a long time to boot from a "restart" with that HDD attached.

Tony -

The Disk Config looks fine. TIP: Always make sure the Windows drive is in the fastest drive port, if your motherboard is variable.

Run WD Data Lifeguard diagnostics Long Test on the drive:

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?DL

Follow this up with a full Disk Check:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/running-a-check-dis...

Only if it passes both tests would I trust it for the long term.

Keep me posted on your progress as I will be here to help until the case is resolved.

Here's a screenshot of Disk Management.

Note that the partitions created on C:\ (the boot drive) were all created by Windows during the installation.

Also note that this is on a FRESH installation and format of both of the SSD's, as I have just upgraded my system to Ryzen 3 5800x, 32GB DDR4 3200, and new motherboard, but this issue has been happening for quite some time.

This Western Digital 6TB "Red" drive was bought new by me and I have been using it for several years. I have never used it as a Windows boot drive, at least not that I can remember. There are no secondary partitions on it whatsoever as you can see above. I do large file transfer between this drive and the SSD quite often, especially right now since I backed up several games and other large files before reformatting the two SSD drives prior to my reformat and system upgrade. The folders are transferring over to the SSD at around 100MB/s on average. I checked the specifications for this drive and it says its theoretical sequential read speed is 175MB/s but I understand it's unlikely all these files are "sequential" on the disk.

I loaded up this Crystal Disk and it is showing me this:

How do I run a test and/or repair whatever these cautions mean?

Also, it's essentially impossible for me to reformat this drive. As you can see, there is only 7% free space remaining on this drive and I literally have no where else to put the data.