Eclipse freezing at startup - before loading workspace

Question

First thing on a morning, just after I switch on my PC (Windows XP) and start my Eclipse it simply shows the splash screen and then freezes. After about 20 minutes it will then ask me which workspace to load.

The problem was happening with 3.5 and 3.6 Eclipse. With the 3.6 Eclipse installation I only have the standard PDE install + Google plugin (for GWT development) + Subclipse.

Because I have it configured to ask me for the workspace I can see its not workspace or project related.

I suspect the Google plugin as I have not had any problems before installing this but I have searched and have not come across anybody reporting similar problems.

It only does this once - straight after I switch my machine on in the morning. After this it starts fine - typically in a few seconds.

What is it likely to be doing? How can I find out what it is doing?

Answer 1

Maybe this blog post could help?

Answer 2

Try restarting eclipse with the -console and -consoleLog flags. This will open a console window when you can interact with OSGi and see platform output. You can put those flags in the eclipse.ini in your eclipse folder (where eclipse.exe is located). In the console window, type "ss" which will display what plug-ins are loaded and started. That could point you to the reason for the slowness. You can type start and stop to start and stop OSGi bundles. Also, make sure that there is no "-clean" in your eclipse.ini as it will cause all plugins to be reloaded and that may cause some slowness.

Answer 3

Found my problem. The Google GWT plugin does not clean up after itself and leaves lots of files in the Temp folder (C:\Documents and Settings{username}\Local Settings\Temp on XP). I had over 100000 files and several thousand folders in here - with over 99% of them due to the Google GWT plugin. I removed these and now Eclipse starts in a few seconds instead of 20 minutes. Plus my whole machine is generally running more smoothly.