long wait to boot kernel with GPT and 4.5TB array

[Scott C. Frase]

Hi,
I'm new to this list with a bit of a problem.  I recently installed
Fedora 12, x86-64 on my Dell SC1430. I am using a 3ware 9650SE RAID card
with 4-1.5TB drives attached. The RAID array is partitioned using GPT:
GNU Parted 1.9.0
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p 
Model: AMCC 9650SE-4LP DISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 4500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 17.9kB 210MB 210MB ext4 boot
2 210MB 4500GB 4500GB lvm

F12 64-bit installs fine. However, when the box boots, the initial grub
screen loads, goes black and then the system hangs for almost three
minutes until the kernel starts loading. 

Here is my fairly basic grub.conf (comments removed):
default=0
timeout=2
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64 ro 
root=/dev/mapper/vg_ogre-lv_root  init=/sbin/bootchartd
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64.img

Once the kernel loads, the system only takes about 30 seconds to load, as shown 
in this bootchart graph:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bcLw_LVf5nA/S3C8jNnxDmI/AAAAAAAAA6w/tKoyu1ML9i0/bootchart.jpg

My version of grub installed is .97:
address@hidden ~]$ grub --version
grub (GNU GRUB 0.97)

The interesting thing is that the stage 2 loader says I'm running grub
version .94 in the device file for the array:
address@hidden ~]$ file -s /dev/sda
sudo file -s /dev/sda
/dev/sda: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, boot 
drive 0x80, 1st sector stage2 0x5f25, GRUB version 0.94; partition 1: ID=0xee, 
starthead 0, startsector 1, 4294967295 sectors, code offset 0x48

I'm a bit of a newbie with the grub bootloader.  Does anyone have any idea why 
my boot times might be so long or how I might reduce the time to boot the 
kernel?

thanks,
scott