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After a recent discussion on the Xbox-Scene Discord regarding boot times i thought id start a topic here on the subject :)

 

My X3 2tb Xbox was taking almost a full minute to get from power on to being able to control the cursor in the dashboard. 

Heres my specs, 

 

1.0 xbox with X3 chip

Latest X3 bios is the usual bios used on this machine so thats what was used for testing. (Did some tests with Cerbios 2.0.2 with UDMA5 enabled, boot time results were exactly the same. BUT speed benefits were seen when loading games)

2Tb Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm hdd, Full USA set plus PAL Exclusives and playable Jap exclusives. 

Startech IDE2SATA Adapter

Generic 80wire IDE cable from Amazon. (the common yellow one)

 

I managed to get my boot time down to about 26 secs by doing the following. 

Switched of the Flubber anim completely using X3 config live

Updating XBMC4Gamers to the latest AND ensuring that "Skip Scanning" was enabled 

 

Im happy with 26 secs as I think the only other way i could make it quicker is to use remove some content from my hdd or use a smaller one :) 

 

Who out there has the quickest booting xbox?????? :)

 

 

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Quickest will be the retail drive simply because it has less on it.

The reasons your Xbox take so long to get to the main dashboard 'home' screen is because of the amount of stuff you have on it. Particularly with UnleashX there is an unrecorded total icon image file size limit which, if exceeded will mean some dash icons will never load and slow the boot time down considerably. Other content limits do the same at least in that it affects the boot time.

There's also the use of SATA HDDs or more particularly the SATA>IDE adapters that seem to create a bottle neck. My boot times for my first Xbox SATA HDD a 320GB WD 3.5" HDD even before I'd put much on it were noticeably slower than the 160GB WD IDE 3.5" HDD it replaced which was pretty full . The reason I'd upgraded.

Also I'm wondering about the SATA HDD types themselves might be affecting the speed when used in the Xbox. There's a little appreciated fact that only the ITB Seagate Barracuda is CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording). All others are SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) including the 2TB ones.

https://www.minitool.com/backup-tips/cmr-vs-smr.html

In effect CMR ones are faster than SMR. Whether that affects their Xbox use I have no idea but it is a possibility so I thought it worth throwing into the mix. :)

BTW the info on that link page about all Seagates Barracudas being SMR is wrong.

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/internal-hard-drives/cmr-smr-list/

 

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5 minutes ago, HDShadow said:

Quickest will be the retail drive simply because it has less on it.

The reasons your Xbox take so long to get to the main dashboard 'home' screen is because of the amount of stuff you have on it. Particularly with UnleashX there is an unrecorded total icon image file size limit which, if exceeded will mean some dash icons will never load and slow the boot time down considerably. Other content limits do the same at least in that it affects the boot time.

There's also the use of SATA HDDs or more particularly the SATA>IDE adapters that seem to create a bottle neck. My boot times for my first Xbox SATA HDD a 320GB WD 3.5" HDD even before I'd put much on it were noticeably slower than the 160GB WD IDE 3.5" HDD it replaced which was pretty full . The reason I'd upgraded.

Also I'm wondering about the SATA HDD types themselves might be affecting the speed when used in the Xbox. There's a little appreciated fact that only the ITB Seagate Barracuda is CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording). All others are SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) including the 2TB ones.

https://www.minitool.com/backup-tips/cmr-vs-smr.html

In effect CMR ones are faster than SMR. Whether that affects their Xbox use I have no idea but it is a possibility so I thought it worth throwing into the mix. :)

BTW the info on that link page about all Seagates Barracudas being SMR is wrong.

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/internal-hard-drives/cmr-smr-list/

 

Obvs the retail drive will be quickest by a long margin. Although I would imagine anyone still using IDE drives will also always have a quicker boot. 

As you can see from the second last line of my post I am well aware that it would be quicker with less content or a smaller drive :)

Good info on CMR/SMR though.

 

I'm going to have to setup a new drive with minimal content on which I can then swap between all my different xbox setups and do some comparisons when I get a free day.

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6 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Obvs the retail drive will be quickest by a long margin. Although I would imagine anyone still using IDE drives will also always have a quicker boot. 

As you can see from the second last line of my post I am well aware that it would be quicker with less content or a smaller drive :)

Good info on CMR/SMR though.

 

I'm going to have to setup a new drive with minimal content on which I can then swap between all my different xbox setups and do some comparisons when I get a free day.

Had a Titan UDMA5 loading XBMC4gamers and Emustation in seconds.  Gonna test Cerbios udma5 next.

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23 minutes ago, nikeymikey said:

How big was the HDD and how full was it?

 

Ah forgot the important stuff.  4TB with 600gb ish left.  Close to complete usa Xbox Set and 30+ retro systems with full ish sets.  Brand is 4TB WL $45 (Some say they are WD refurbed) on amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I0SYYSC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

Just finished DD'ing complete ISO set - Going to set this up next and test Cerbios UDMA5 - This one will be a real western digital 8TB and will be 95% filled when done.

Edited by Donnie-Burger
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1 hour ago, Donnie-Burger said:

Ah forgot the important stuff.  4TB with 600gb ish left.  Close to complete usa Xbox Set and 30+ retro systems with full ish sets.  Brand is 4TB WL $45 (Some say they are WD refurbed) on amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I0SYYSC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

Just finished DD'ing complete ISO set - Going to set this up next and test Cerbios UDMA5 - This one will be a real western digital 8TB and will be 95% filled when done.

That full xbox set getting populated is causing your boot lag.

How are you going to fill the 8tb?

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1 hour ago, Bowlsnapper said:

That full xbox set getting populated is causing your boot lag.

How are you going to fill the 8tb?

I don't have any boot lag except the 1st boot to cache everything.

 

8tb 95% full now with XISO set + Emus.  About to fire it up and test for the first time.

Edited by Donnie-Burger
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11 hours ago, Donnie-Burger said:

Ah forgot the important stuff.  4TB with 600gb ish left.  Close to complete usa Xbox Set and 30+ retro systems with full ish sets.  Brand is 4TB WL $45 (Some say they are WD refurbed) on amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I0SYYSC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

Just finished DD'ing complete ISO set - Going to set this up next and test Cerbios UDMA5 - This one will be a real western digital 8TB and will be 95% filled when done.

Video the boot please!!! I wanna see before I invest in an 8tb

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18 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Video the boot please!!! I wanna see before I invest in an 8tb

8TB 50GB left - 28 seconds from beginning of flubber animation to xbmc4gamers login and to apps, emus, games, homebrew etc. 

 

I am however getting a 10 second black screen before cerbios flubber animation plays.  Trying to figure out whats causing this.

 

Xbox 1.4 - 128mb ram - Aladdin xt - Startech adapter - 8tb WD - XBOX2hdmi and cheap ebay hdmi adapter - Cerbios 2.02R UDMA 5

Edited by Donnie-Burger
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5 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Kickass, dude! Now you just need a 1.4GHZ CPU and youˋre set.

Iˋd be interested to see that filesystem. I wanna know exactly how you filled that drive up. How much space do all the xbox isos take up?

7tb ish isos take with some europe and japan games + xbox demos disc isos etc.  Rest was for emulators and 50gb left.

 

Same file system as before

 

Games - XBMC4GAMERS has a built in script to transfer isos to a folder and ads correct icons, .xbe etc (Its picky and doesn't like () characters.

Emulators

Homebrew

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1 hour ago, Donnie-Burger said:

7tb ish isos take with some europe and japan games + xbox demos disc isos etc.  Rest was for emulators and 50gb left.

 

Same file system as before

 

Games - XBMC4GAMERS has a built in script to transfer isos to a folder and ads correct icons, .xbe etc (Its picky and doesn't like () characters.

Emulators

Homebrew

7tb of xbox isos... my GOD. Thatˋll take a minute to scroll though.

Generic rompacks for the emulators, Iˋm sure. What kinda homebrew is on there besides the emulators?

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7 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

7tb of xbox isos... my GOD. Thatˋll take a minute to scroll though.

Generic rompacks for the emulators, Iˋm sure. What kinda homebrew is on there besides the emulators?

Game isos are now 2 files + icons, default.tbn and default.xbe so thousand files games are a thing of the past.  Transfers max out.  Cloned 8tb to an 8tb in 12 hours last night.  Most emus with sets up to ps1 and have most homebrew games on there.  About 10 games failed the xbmc xiso script and will look into manually adding whats needed to those isos or use folder method for any xisos that fail.

 

I was assuming 5tb when I was done but I was wrong as isos take up more. Is there a way to trim isos?.

Edited by Donnie-Burger
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1 hour ago, Donnie-Burger said:

Game isos are now 2 files + icons, default.tbn and default.xbe so thousand files games are a thing of the past.  Transfers max out.  Cloned 8tb to an 8tb in 12 hours last night.  Most emus with sets up to ps1 and have most homebrew games on there.  About 10 games failed the xbmc xiso script and will look into manually adding whats needed to those isos or use folder method for any xisos that fail.

 

I was assuming 5tb when I was done but I was wrong as isos take up more. Is there a way to trim isos?.

If they are full redumps, then yes. You can use the repack method with Mulleter and Qwix. It cuts out the dummy data and video partition. Usally brings 8GB DL-DVD isos down to anywhere from 1GB to 3 or 4. 

How many ps1 isos do you have and how much space do they take?

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12 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

If they are full redumps, then yes. You can use the repack method with Mulleter and Qwix. It cuts out the dummy data and video partition. Usally brings 8GB DL-DVD isos down to anywhere from 1GB to 3 or 4. 

How many ps1 isos do you have and how much space do they take?

I thought the whole point of using the redump set was to have untouched isos for Cerbios???

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32 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Wait, what? 

There was some discussion in the discord I believe and Ii think the outcome was the Redump isos with only the video partition removed or something along those lines was recommended. 

 

I could of read it wrong and be a little off with that tho... :)

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/11/2022 at 11:44 AM, Donnie-Burger said:

8TB 50GB left - 28 seconds from beginning of flubber animation to xbmc4gamers login and to apps, emus, games, homebrew etc. 

 

I am however getting a 10 second black screen before cerbios flubber animation plays.  Trying to figure out whats causing this.

 

Xbox 1.4 - 128mb ram - Aladdin xt - Startech adapter - 8tb WD - XBOX2hdmi and cheap ebay hdmi adapter - Cerbios 2.02R UDMA 5

Did you ever get to the bottom of the ~10 second delay?  I have the exact same issue!

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10 hours ago, clueless said:

Did you ever get to the bottom of the ~10 second delay?  I have the exact same issue!

Titan bios and this isnt an issue.  Been so busy building titan builds havent had any time to test cerbios.  Just got HD+/Titan/UDMA5/4TB/128MB working butter smooth no issues finally.  I did do one cerbios since then and no boot delay so they might have fixed it in new version.  Are you running most recent cerbios?

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12 hours ago, Donnie-Burger said:

Titan bios and this isnt an issue.  Been so busy building titan builds havent had any time to test cerbios.  Just got HD+/Titan/UDMA5/4TB/128MB working butter smooth no issues finally.  I did do one cerbios since then and no boot delay so they might have fixed it in new version.  Are you running most recent cerbios?

Yes, was runniung most recent cerbios.  Not the udma 5 version though, might try that

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