You may experience disk I/O performance issues if your server contains an Intel Xeon Westmere-EX (10 Core) processor
This can occur because some of the I/O completion port objects are not cache-aligned. This behavior is what causes poor disk I/O performance.
You can resolve the issue by updating Ntoskrnl.exe and Ntkrnlpa.exe updated versions are available for download from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545635
These two issues can occur for two different reasons, a corrupt file in the Windows Prefetch Folder or it could be that the Prefetch Folder is cluttered.
To resolve these issues you need to delete the contents of the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder and then restart your computer.
The Prefetch folder is just a cache of recently used application executables and will be recreated based upon the applications you use most frequently. Over time the folder becomes cluttered with rarely used and prefetched applications hence the launch of applications becomes slower.
You may find following the clear down of the Prefetch folder and reboot that the first time you open each application it is still a little slow, ths is because Windows will automatically re-add the application on its first launch to the prefetch folder. After your first use of the common applications everything should now be much faster and you should find startup times have been reduced.
You may find that Windows based computers and laptops are very slow to startup and in some instances slow to shutdown. This has been witnessed when out dated drivers are installed for the integrted Realtek HD Audio Chipset.
The Realtek HD Audio drivers offered on Microsoft Update are often dated 2005 and are many years behind those available directly from the Audio Chipset manufacturer.
You can verify your current Audio Chipset and Driver version from “Device Manager”
Please visit http://www.realtek.com/downloads/ to find and download the latest applicable drivers for your Windows system. They will usually reference the drivers as “High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)” and then under Windows the list Operating System Compatability for each system and provide several download links based upon locations around the world. Downloads from the Realtek site can be slow at busy times of the day so you may need to be patient and/or download outside peak hours.
As you can see from the table the current drivers from Realtek Support are dated 21st October 2011 and are usually updated every 1-2 months, it would be worth updating to the latest release to resolve your slow startup times and then add updating your audio drivers into your usual computer maintenance schedule. Once you have updated remember to check Device Manager to ensure that the latest drivers are actually installed and that the device is operating correctly.
An issue that was identifed a few months ago is slow system startup with your Windows 7 Desktop/Laptop or Windows Server 2008 R2 Server. This is related to a delay in the initilisation of the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider (Deals with Shadow Copy, System Restore and Backup).
All is not lost as this issue can be fixed by applying the latest version of Volsnap.sys to your operating system
Currently the latest version can be found in the following Microsoft Hotfix (KB 2548124) and applies to Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 – RTM or Service Pack 1 installs.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2548124