Need of some help for my Mac OS 9.1 startup issues. Recently my startup (just turning the mac on) takes about 10-15 minutes to find startup folder and then another 10 minutes to actually load OS. I have PLENTY of memory, as well of RAM. I even went through the extensions manager to delete and disable extensions that are no use to me. The problems is still there though. It all started when I installed Illustrator 9 on my hard drive, but i bought 256 megs to resolve the situation, and it hasnt. Any ideas?

I don't have a complete answer for you but re: your mac searching for its start-up disk. Your mac may just need some reminding so go to Start Up Disk in Control panels and select it. Restart and hopefully that will clarify it for your mac.