Safe Boot takes longer than normal startup

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5

Symptoms

A Safe Boot for Mac OS X takes longer than a normal startup.

This delay will occur when you see the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear). It can be quite long (several minutes) depending on how long it takes to check and repair the directory (if needed).

Resolution

This delay is normal for a Safe Boot and caused by two of the things that happen during a Safe Boot:

  • Safe Boot forces a directory check of the hard drive. This is identical to using Disk Utility's Repair Disk or the fsck -fy terminal command.
  • The cache of kernel extensions used to speed startup is ignored. (The cache file is /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache )
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