Originally Posted by jerkyjerky

Well guys...

It appears that ASUS was right. They claimed that there was a problem with the Western Digital drive. I got my replacement drive from Western Digital and the startup is A LOT FASTER now. Seems there was a problem with the eSATA connector on the Western Digital drive after all. I've only had the new drive installed for a few hours but everything seems to be fine now. No long boot ups anymore. I'll check back in after a few days to let you guys know if everything holds up ok. Thank you for all your suggestions. I think we've all learned something from this problem.