Turning Off Fast Start-up

[Rob574188]

Hi all,

Sometimes if you are having weird boot issues such as being unable to boot to the BIOS or an external device, it could well be worth toggling fast start up off.

To do so, please follow the instructions below.

1. Open the Windows Start Menu and open the Settings Window
2. Select System
3. Select the Power & Sleep Tab, then click on Additional Power Settings

4. Select Choose what the power buttons do

5. Then click on the shield that says Change Settings that are Currently Unavailable, then untick the Turn on Fast Start Up. Save the changes and you're done.


From here, if you were struggling booting to the BIOS then restart the machine, tap F2 repeatedly on start up and you should then be able to access the BIOS. Note that the F8 key (F7 on a laptop/F12 on a gigabyte board) is to select your boot device.

 

[ubuysa]

Alternatively you could also disable hibernation completely (open an elevated command prompt and enter the command 'powercfg -h off' but without the quotes). This works because Windows 'fast boot' actually hibernates the Windows kernel when you shutdown and restores it when you boot. Turning off hibernation prevents that of course. It's this restore from hibernation of the kernel (rather than a clean reload) that sometimes causes issues for some motherboards.

If you don't use hibernation then turning it off not only stops fast boot but it also saves a bunch of disk space. If you do use hibernation then RobPCS's method is the one to use to stop 'fast boot'.

BTW. If your boot drive is an SSD there is very little benefit to 'fast boot' and I would recommend that you turn it off.