Bizarre boot behavior - reliable booting desired.

[Sebastian42]

My now-ancient tower PC running x32Win10ProV22H2 works well once it has booted and I would like to keep it that way, since I have been tweaking it for years (decades ?) to achieve a highly customized end-product. So I am hoping that some sympathetic and knowledgeable enthusiast can help me coax it along for a few more years. The help I need, is related to the phenomenon that when I boot the system, it may well behave as expected and I can use it, but more often, it will 'hang' before the windows logo is exchanged for the display of my customized desktop. Sometimes, if I then reboot while tapping F8, it may boot normally, or boot to Safe Mode. If Safe Mode is achieved, a reboot usually results in a normal boot, but if even that fails, a checkdisk (obviously from another drive) will rescue it. The checkdisk first says it will take 30 min, then it will suddenly declare that no errors were found, and typically, the 'troublesome drive' will then boot successfully (suggesting to me that SOME unacknowledged 'repair' has in fact taken place), however an alert displays the following irrelevant message : "Keep the USB drive plugged in and only remove it after your PC has shut down completely, otherwise your Windows To Go might crash and you could lose data". Irrelevant, because NO plugged-in USB drive has any connection to Windows-To-Go. I KNOW that Windows 10 is no longer supported by Microsoft, and that other users have 'moved on', that is why I said I am looking for a sympathetic enthusiast who may understand my attachment to outdated but functioning hardware and software.

 

[Grizzly]

When I tried to improve my computer, I first maxed out RAM (stuffed in as much as the mainboard allowed). Second, I replaced the HDD with a SSD. These two steps have improved the boot time from 4-5 minutes down to 1-1.5 minutes and that is on a 15 year old computer. Changing to a SSD already brought a big performance boost. However, I have a 64bit (x64) system, not a 32 bit system like you have. A 32 bit system has already limitations in itself due to the architecture and also the RAM and storage limitations.
a 32bit system can manage RAM only up to 4GB. It also has a max limit on the file size of max 4GB and can only handle a Storage size of 2TB.
I hope this information helps

 

[Sebastian42]

Sorry to have to say, that is all old news to me. I already have 4Gb RAM, and SSD drives; the 2Tb limit on storage is of no concern - but MIGHT explain why NONE of several 2Tb SSDs has 'worked'.
Thank you for your response - much appreciated. My system is currently such that it boots without fuss, but I do not expect that to last. By the way - I did not get an email alert for your reply.

 

[Sebastian42]

FOR THE RECORD - I have been accessing a 5Tb 'spinning disk' quite reliably, so the storage limit must NOT be 2Tb. To my surprise that access failed through SATA leads, but succeeds through a SATA/USB adapter into a switchable USB2 hub !