The fastest Mac Os 9 booting computer.

[MacTron]

The fastest Mac Os 9 booting computer,
Please post your results.

This are the data from some of my Macs:

iMac G4 700:  47"
eMac G4 1.5:  47"
MDD 1.5 38"

The MDD  is even faster when rebooting  (33")  thanks to its SSD, while the other machines are slower when rebooting (5-10 sec slower)

[GaryN]

Great idea Tron… BUT we need a few rules because things can cause time differences that have nothing to do with the hardware or software.
*Having defined beginning and end points is critical, for example.

1) START - at power-on or at chime?
    You gotta have a definite starting line

2) FINISH - at desktop appears or all desktop items/icons mounted and visible?
    You gotta have a definite finish line and…
     this may vary according to individual desktop clutter and drive speed

3) ATA - Boot drive only or all connected drives?
     It would seem it should be boot only - ex. I have 4 internal drives with partitions and 1 external FW… big difference from boot only
     It's no big deal to unplug additional drives for testing in the desktop models

4) VERSION - OS 9.0 or 9.1 vs. OS 9.2.2
     Significant? Who knows? Not me but I know that 9.2.2 has a lot more "stuff" so more extensions et al will probably take longer. Do we care?

These would seem to me to be the items that could cause big time differences that don't necessarily have anything to do with hardware.

I'm just sayin'…

[MacTron]

Great idea Tron… BUT we need a few rules because things can cause time differences that have nothing to do with the hardware or software.
*Having defined beginning and end points is critical, for example.

1) START - at power-on or at chime?
    You gotta have a definite starting line

2) FINISH - at desktop appears or all desktop items/icons mounted and visible?
    You gotta have a definite finish line and…
     this may vary according to individual desktop clutter and drive speed

I thought that this was obvious... 

3) ATA - Boot drive only or all connected drives?
     It would seem it should be boot only - ex. I have 4 internal drives with partitions and 1 external FW… big difference from boot only
     It's no big deal to unplug additional drives for testing in the desktop models

4) VERSION - OS 9.0 or 9.1 vs. OS 9.2.2
     Significant? Who knows? Not me but I know that 9.2.2 has a lot more "stuff" so more extensions et al will probably take longer. Do we care?

Startup time is primarily affected by Hard Disk speed and the extension set you are using.
So You have to test your actual system. I have tested my Macs "as they are" for daily using, in fact the MDD have two SSD's and two 1080x1920 displays with plenty icons on both desktops, disconnecting one of them will improve startup time even more.

[GaryN]

Having pointed out that you can't have a fair race, an accurate survey or a valid comparison without everyone agreeing on at least basic identical parameters, boundaries, rules etc.…

and having been informed my points are "obvious"…

still without any agreement or even suggestion of what those parameters should be…

thereby leading to the collection of boot times without any standards which will be mildly amusing and scientifically worthless…

I hereby officially regret even bringing it up in the first place.

My apologies.


Well to be perfectly honest, in my humble opinion, of course without offending anyone who thinks differently from my point of view, but also by looking into this matter in a different perspective and without being condemning of one's view's and by trying to make it objectified, and by considering each and every one's valid opinion, I honestly believe that I completely forgot what I was going to say.

[refinery]

Should just be startup chime to desktop, with no extensions loaded. That would give the most comparable baseline really. However I think anybody booting off an expansion card is going to have longer results no matter what. So maybe, both startup chime to desktop, and the happy Mac icon to desktop.

[ovalking]

Just for fun, I've been recording boot-up times of PCs I encounter for a while - I have about 150 results.
Generally the times are quite unpredictable, but 'clean' drives and minimal peripherals help. High specs don't guarrantee anything, and sometimes you get delays for no apparent reason.
I start the clock when I hit the power button, and stop when the desktop is fully drawn, and the menu bar clock seconds are counting normally. I average several readings if possible.

Fastest so far
MacMini 1.66 OS10.4 - 38 secs

Fastest classic Mac OS
=8500/G3 400 OS7.5.5 - 59 secs
=G4 867 OS9.2.2 - 59 secs

Slowest
8500/132 OS8.6 - 203 secs

[Roman78]

Mac Mini 1.5 Ghz, 1 Gb Ram: 52 Seconds

[Ninester]

QS DP 1G

9.2.2 normal startup bong to all icons displayed, nothing optimized!

57.31 seconds,  26 seconds with both CPU's...

I win!

[FdB]

Oh huh…

With a respectful tip o’ the hat and nod towards GaryN
and his previous comments on the subject…

I offer the following:

Mac mini - 1.25GHz / 1 GB RAM: from chime to complete desktop…
43.16 seconds.

From button push to complete desktop… OS 9.2.2 v.6
45 seconds.

OS X / 10.4.6…
48 seconds (button to desktop).

Haven’t timed my 1.5 GHz mini (or a QS or an MDD) yet…
but the 1.25 mini here, beats Roman78’s 1.5 GHz mini?

(And I think Ninester's using nitrous oxide.)

[solderwire]

iBook G3 Snow (500MHz 750cxe, 576MB RAM, 60GB 5400rpm) with Simplified Chinese 9.2.2
From button to complete desktop: 62s
From Happy Mac to complete desktop: 48s

SheepShaver (under macOS 10.13.5, Hackintosh build with Core i7 4790K, SATA SSD)
Mac OS 9.0.4: Less than 25 seconds

The result of my Mac mini will be here soon.

UPDATE:
Mac mini G4 (1.25GHz 7447a, 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm) with Chinese 9.2.2
From button to complete desktop: 58s
From Happy Mac to complete desktop: 37s

[tunedbytad]

Adding to old topic for reference purposes

From Ding to usable Desktop

G4 MDD 1.25SP SSDon IDE OS9 Asus flat panelon DVI Boot time 39-40sec
*with Dual Drives / Full extensions for ProTools TDM inc Open Transport

Without open Transport!!! around / about 32 second range

[IIO]

Without open Transport!!!

that´s interesting.

what also make sa difference is turning the RAM check off in the memory control panel.