Windows 95/98 forum: BOOT FROM CD: comes up twice during long 98SE boot.

I'm having a problem with very long boots. In BIOS I set the Windows 98 screen to be hidden during boot but it comes up anyway. I get the DOS screen text "BOOT from CD:" while it looks to see if there is a CD in the CD drive. Then instead of proceeding to boot from the HD, it just starts hammering the HD for 2 minutes with the Windows splash screen there. Then it goes back to say "BOOT FROM CD:" again and then it boots.

I've tried:

malware checkers
virus checkers
Registry Mechanic
scanreg /fix
FDISK /MBR
HD surface check/repair
HD defragmenting
with no reports of lingering HD problems.

I tried a Microsoft 98SE patch for slow boots due to an incompatibility over something. I can't remember the exact description now.

Once up and running, it still runs VERY slow when starting an application. Once an application is finally up and running it runs at a normal speed. But sometimes the PC hangs up and I have to reset. When that happens, it is when I'm not using that much RAM.

I installed a small program that checks how much memory is being used and I'm not getting close to the limit.

Any ideas? Maybe my HD is slowly going out? I did find a few surface errors before.