Startup problem, Snow Leopard

New here, can't find anything on this, and not absolutely sure this is the right place to post it; but here goes...

My macbook pro (Intel 2.66 core2duo, 10.6.8) is running great, as normal - once its started up. But getting to that point just took 7 minutes and 42 seconds after powering on! Even Windows boots faster than that ;-)

I get a completely blank backlit screen for over a minute, then the Apple logo appears and a progress bar which creeps agonisingly slowly for nearly 7 more, before the desktop appears - a few seconds later the computer is ready for action. From then on its fine.

Happens every time. Where might I begin?!
Thanks for being here.

this doesn't sound like a startup?

Do you shutdown using the Apple Menu > Shut Down command?

Yes, always. This progress bar never used to be there, and has appeared only since this extremely slow boot problem appeared.

This may be completely coincidental, but this problem has appeared since I recently set up an external hdd (with several partitions), and I began using SuperDuper to clone my system to oneof those partitions. (I already had data backed up securely, but began to dread having to rebuild my setup and os if the disk died... so now I clone the disk each week or so, or before making a significant change.)

I have made sure the macs int hdd is the startup disk. If I connect the firewire drive and hold Option at startup, then the painfully long delay takes me eventually to the list of available startup partitions - ie the internal hdd and the clone partition on the firewire drive.

So on reflection I guess this means that the problem is pre-OS startup... Does this help to give any more clues?
Thanks.

Yes, I would agree. Its not OSX, its something you've installed, un-compressing your drive and mounting it, I'd guess.

I use TimeMachine for my will be able to restore my whole system up to 1 hour ago, back up. Works great!

You may find that its even harder to restore your system than you think with these ad hoc methods.

This is interesting; at risk of going off-topic - I was led to believe from my research that Time Machine is no use if for example the hdd dies; that a backup made by TM cannot restore the OS and all its programs and settings to a new disk. This is why I used another strategy ie SuperDuper. Am I wrong?

I wouldn't restore an OS, if I've got to do a rebuild always start with a known good, fresh clean install of OSX, especially if it's on a different Mac.

The TimeMachine will do the rest no worries, its clever with the Apps and versioning and the User Accounts is just how I left it.

Sure, I do other backups, I Carbon Copy Clone my iTunes media drive, I use Apertures backup to an external drive, I burn DVDs of files, I have 2 externals that I drag and drop projects that I'm ready to snapshot to, but I'd always start with a clean install, migrate Apps and User Spaces from TimeCapsule and be up and going.

Took it to the Genius Bar, and was met by someone interested and seemingly capable. He suggested reinstalling the os without overwriting my data - I didn't know this was an option. Doh!
Al seems to be well again. Was this a good option?!
Thanks for your help here, it was much appreciated.

I asked him for the definitive answer on Time Machine backups. He explained that you can't boot from or into a TM partition, but you can use it to rebuild your exact system as-was, when installing a new hdd. This wouldn't suit me - I need to boot into partitions containing different versions of the OS, which is why SuperDuper hit the spot.
Thanks!

Yes, but its a typical sledge hammer approach.

So what you need isn't a backup;-)

Well, this nut is truly cracked by that sledgehammer - and I didn't seem to be getting anywhere using gentler approaches!

I guess you're saying I'm confusing backup with clone? I'm making that point in reply to your point above, which said

which implied (at least to me) that you were saying that TM would do what SuperDuper does. I was explaining why it wasn't the solution I was looking for.

Thanks again. Its a learning process...

Hey Kaveman - this is well off-topic but I can't resist; my son is working in Te Anau right now, which is half a world away from me, but looks pretty near Westland!