ASRock X870E Nova Disk Interaction Extremely Slow

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   Hey all, adding my experience to this thread.
I'm running Linux (CachyOS) on my X870E Nova WiFi with a 9950X3D and RTX 4090. Been pulling my hair out over slow boot times - systemd-analyze was showing over a minute just in initrd, with total boot around 1 min 40 sec.
After a lot of troubleshooting I narrowed it down to my two SATA SSDs (Seagate BarraCuda 120s - 1TB and 2TB). Both are healthy according to SMART, only about 6% wear after a few years of use.

Updated BIOS from 3.40 to 4.04 - issue persisted and toggling fast boot to off just increased the time.

The drives just sit there for ~70 seconds before becoming available.
Finally just unplugged them and boom - initrd dropped to 13 seconds, total boot down to 43 seconds. The drives work perfectly fine in a USB enclosure with zero delay, so it's definitely something with the board's SATA implementation.
Bit frustrating since I was planning to use these as data drives, but I'll just run them over USB for now. Figured I'd add another data point here in case ASRock is tracking this.

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Sanchi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 20 Jan 2026 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote Sanchi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: ASRock X870E Nova Disk Interaction Extremely Slow Posted: 20 Jan 2026 at 10:33pm
	Hey all, adding my experience to this thread. I'm running Linux (CachyOS) on my X870E Nova WiFi with a 9950X3D and RTX 4090. Been pulling my hair out over slow boot times - systemd-analyze was showing over a minute just in initrd, with total boot around 1 min 40 sec. After a lot of troubleshooting I narrowed it down to my two SATA SSDs (Seagate BarraCuda 120s - 1TB and 2TB). Both are healthy according to SMART, only about 6% wear after a few years of use. Updated BIOS from 3.40 to 4.04 - issue persisted and toggling fast boot to off just increased the time. The drives just sit there for ~70 seconds before becoming available. Finally just unplugged them and boom - initrd dropped to 13 seconds, total boot down to 43 seconds. The drives work perfectly fine in a USB enclosure with zero delay, so it's definitely something with the board's SATA implementation. Bit frustrating since I was planning to use these as data drives, but I'll just run them over USB for now. Figured I'd add another data point here in case ASRock is tracking this.

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 33668	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Sep 2025 at 4:21pm
	Remove USB devices as well as any drives not needed to boot into the OS and see if it changes. If it speeds up then replace the disconnected devices one at a time and test which one is causing the slowdown.


Archipelago Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 12 Sep 2025 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote Archipelago Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Sep 2025 at 6:00pm
	Same here.. boot to windows11 takes 3 minutes. Boot to linux takes 20 seconds.. what gives?

KLund1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 30 Mar 2025 Status: Offline Points: 180	Post Options Post Reply Quote KLund1 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 Apr 2025 at 9:49am
	Thanks for the screen shots they are helpful. I have sent a ASRock "Service Request form" We'll see what they say.

M440 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 12 Jul 2023 Status: Offline Points: 4610	Post Options Post Reply Quote M440 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Apr 2025 at 3:32am
	i use g.skill XMP memory with b650. I need to set the memory training options to auto for my kit to work (its not on compatibility list). Below are the settings I set after i apply the stock memory profile [/QUOTE] full thread: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=30954&PN=1&title=solved-b650m-hdv-m2-bios-memory-stability-issues
	asrock b650m-hdv/m.2, ryzen 7700x@85watt, arch/kde

KLund1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 30 Mar 2025 Status: Offline Points: 180	Post Options Post Reply Quote KLund1 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Apr 2025 at 9:23am
	Are there are anybody else that has some suggestions or the same problems ??

KLund1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 30 Mar 2025 Status: Offline Points: 180	Post Options Post Reply Quote KLund1 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Apr 2025 at 6:22am
	So we have three that have reported this issue. I get RND4k IOPs read write is 73.86k / 253.43k (crystaldiskmark 1gb peak performance) This must be affecting others that are not reporting this issue here. But probably elsewhere. Any way to get the ASRock reps to reply to this thread?

Xeoh Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 07 Apr 2025 Status: Offline Points: 70	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xeoh Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Apr 2025 at 9:37am
	I'm getting a similar issue, but on the m2_2 port (gen4) Using a crucial T500 2tb nvme ssd drive sequential read write is 6500/6400 MB/s (crystaldiskmark 1gb default) RND4k IOPs read write is 223k / 175k (crystaldiskmark 1gb peak performance)

Katar1975 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 03 Apr 2025 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote Katar1975 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 03 Apr 2025 at 10:07pm
	I am facing the same issue with the 870E Nova with the exact same Ram. I am looking for a resolution as well.

KLund1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 30 Mar 2025 Status: Offline Points: 180	Post Options Post Reply Quote KLund1 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02 Apr 2025 at 1:55am
	Thanks for the reply. I have replaced the ram, and there was no improvement. It is expensive to replace all these parts. Any suggestions for diagnostics to find the issue(s)??