6 Minute Boot

I have a 3 year old MBP that originally had a 7 minute boot time, but I cleaned up my 185.87 GB hard drive to have 42.84 GB of free space (about 23% free space) and I reduced my desktop to only host the images of my internal and two external hard drives (when those are plugged in). This reduced the time to boot up to about 6 minutes. I tried doing a parameter RAM reset, but still...

Is this hardware or software issues?

What other things can I do to reduce the time because it is completely ridiculous to wait 6 minutes for a computer to turn on.

Have you tried using a maintenance utility like Onyx to optimize the machine?

What about Login Items, have you checked that list in System Preferences => Accounts?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the login items. The only one is AirPort Base Station Agent

I just repaired the disc (which was needed), BUT still the same amount of time to boot...

How about performing the maintenance tasks? In particular, I would recommend this:

I'd do the above with Onyx.

After that, remove the Airport...Agent from the log in items to see what difference that is making.

Neither helped... still 5:45

Shut the machine off. Turn is back on and immediately press and hold Command+S. This should take you to a terminal screen. At the prompt, type:

/sbin/fsck -f

Press Enter. If any errors were found, run it again until it comes back clean.

Report back and let us know how you make out.

Ok, I tried it (no help), but I don't think I did it right.

What should I wait for after pressing enter?

And what is the proper way to exit?

Let's try this a different way. Download and install Applejack here. Once installed, boot by pressing Command+S to enter single-user mode. When you get to the prompt simply type applejack and choose option 'a' to go on auto-pilot.

It didn't improve anything.

anything else?

I would personally back up my data and system restore the macbook pro.

If you use your mac disks and have nothing on your computer you can see if there is something wrong with the software or hardware (I think).

If your computer is still having a 6 minute boot, I am pretty sure that it is a hardware issue.

It could also possibly be that you are taking to much space on your hard drive, you said that it reduced from 7-6 after clearing up some space.

Remember, this is not guaranteed to work and is from a personal point of view, not professional or an expert point of view. ;D

I would recommend disconnecting any peripherals (external drives included) and seeing if that helps.

I had a similar issue with my iMac, and it ended up being my external drive that I was using to store my Time Machine backup had crapped out. After disconnecting the drive, iMac boot-up time was back to normal.

Sean