A fast test would be to disconnect your mechanical HDD and then see how fast the response is. It may be time for a full format of that thing to clean out bad sector reports and such, which is entirely possible if you have had the drive for a while now.
If it still takes a long time with only the SSD connected, then I suggest making a full backup image of the entire SSD, all three partitions, then cleanly installing Windows 11 onto the SSD (and you might could also disconnect the mechanical drive after saving the backup, so you only install Windows 11 to the SSD with no interference from the HDD). With the clean install, using the clean install tutorial here at hte forums, you should be able to rule out the drive(s) as being the cause of the delay, and will probably need to look at perhaps updating your UEFI firmware.
But what this test will do will be to see if something on the SSD (bad sectors / pending hardware failure / weird sector information / something totally different) is causing the slow uptake in the reading of the drive.
A couple of tips:
1) Pick a good program like Macrium to make the entire disk image. Then pick a second one like, say, CloneZIlla, and make a *second* entire disk backup. The reason is that, unless you'
re already making regular backups, you may not be familiar with all of the options you need to set, and if you make a backup that alter cannot restore correctly, you will be stuck with the new install. So, making 2 backups, from 2 different programs, gives you a bit of a safety net in terms of increasing your chances for a successful restore.
2) When clean installing, follow the tutorial closely, including the steps to clean the drive and convert it to GPT, it will go a long way.
The first step, disconnecting the HDD, is relatively easily tested. The backups and clean install is a much, much more involved process, and if you're not comfortable doing it, no worries. But, it is a good way to see if it is the hardware, the drive(s) themselves, or something having to do with the file system / OS (the last is highly doubtful since it takes a long time to show in your UEFI firmware also, *but* can still be an issue with hte underlying fs itself, if not something in the drive, that is causing it to act wonky.
plug SSD into Sata port 1. Leave the rest off/unplugged and boot up, including CDrom drive.
buts it's the way I would check if I had any problems.
