Hello, I have Windows 7 RC dual booted with XP Pro. W7 takes a long time, about two minutes to start after leaving the initial boot screen. I'm not sure what info to include but here goes:AMD Athlon XP 2800+1GB RAMAbit NF-S2XFX GeForce 6200I ran the W7compatibility software in XP and there weren't any problems. I have a SATA 160GB HDD. XP is on the first partition of 80GB then there is a partition of 40GB with media on it and then 40GB partition with Windows 7. I am wondering if it makes any difference where the different OSs reside. I would appreciate any suggestions. Regards, Bert

this is normal i have that too, in fact i not give a ____ about any os booting time. better is a good running!greetsDavid

. . . I am wondering if it makes any difference where the different OSs reside.. .Bert Yes, it can. How are you dual booting? Using the BIOS or using the Windows 7 boot manager?When Windows first starts booting, it only has the binary code that is in the MBR and the boot sector loaded. It's not very smart at this point.To be able to boot Windows 7, it has to load and execute BOOTMGR from the root of the boot partition. If this is not the first partition, it can take time to locate. It has to rely on basic DOS type hardware calls and has to use a CHS (cyllinder, head, sector) translation of the LBA (logical block address) partition locations.For best results, you need to use the Windows 7 boot manager, from the first partition. That partition has to be NTFS.Good luck,Brian

Brian, Thanks for your help. Thank you for giving me a clear and knowledgeable answer. I believe that I now understand the problem. Regards, Bert.