Finally changed the hard drive to an SSD Crucial MX200. Am very happy with the boot time:
[Ubuntu 14.04]
22 secs from power button tap to usable desktop
15 secs from first “HP” splash to usable desktop
[Ubuntu 14.04 + Android Studio]
9 seconds to first window (gradle has to load project)
19 seconds from desktop to code that is already writable (gradle config… everything done)