Adaptive mechanisms to improve boot performance

In a computing system that includes a pre-fetch manager that is configured to pre-fetch Input/Output (IO) data upon initiation of a boot process, the computing system configured to execute the pre-fetched IO data during the boot process, a method for adaptively improving the efficiency of the boot process to thereby increase the likelihood that the pre-fetch manager will pre-fetch the IO data at or close to a rate at which the computing system is able to execute the pre-fetched IO data, the method comprising:

• an act of determining that an amount of IO data pre-fetched by the pre-fetch manager has fallen behind a rate at which the pre-fetched IO data is executed by the computing system;
• an act of pausing the boot process to create a pause window;
• an act of causing the pre-fetch manager to pre-fetch during the pause window a subset of the IO data, the subset having a magnitude that is determined to be likely to result in the amount of IO data pre-fetched by the pre-fetch manger to substantially match the rate at which the computing system is able to execute the pre-fetched IO data when the pause window is ended;
• and
• an act of ending the pause window and allowing the boot process to resume.

A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of an underlying computing system, adapt the computing system to performing the following:

• determine that an amount of Input/Output (IO) data pre-fetched by the pre-fetch manager has fallen behind a rate at which the pre-fetched IO data is executed by the computing system;
• pause the boot process to create a pause window;
• cause the pre-fetch manager to pre-fetch during the pause window a subset of the IO data, the subset having a magnitude that is determined to be likely to result in the amount of IO data pre-fetched by the pre-fetch manger to substantially match the rate at which the computing system is able to execute the pre-fetched IO data when the pause window is ended;
• and
• end the pause window and allow the boot process to resume.