this problem goes back to our very first boot some six years ago. Amazing.
ATA has outrageous boot delays. I'm sorry to see that SATA has them too. I have no good idea how to fix this, unless we can train FILO to know that we're coming into boot from power on reset.
I don't know that they are *that* outrageous when you consider what's happening. The problem is mostly physics and economics. Consider what it takes to spin a platter from a dead stop up to 7200 rpm and position a read head on the platter with nanometer accuracy across a fairly wide temp range. Now try to do it with hardware that costs less than $10.
If you want really fast boot times you need to boot off of non-mechancial media.
-- Richard A. Smith