Some nice advice has been given, but i'd like to put some emphasis on part of BitCryptex and jackg's initial posts... They are correct, but it seems their posts have been overlooked...
I don't think these posts were overlooked.
OP take these suggestions seriously and even changed his drive to SSD which significantly accelerated the synchronization speed as @Bitcryptex advised.
Additionally, @Jackg suggested alternatives like SPV wallets (electrum) for people who don't really need a full node and this was also discussed above.
...bootstrap.dat is a security risk. But that doesn't stop people post and use bootstrap. Old habits don't die easy...
Of course, one should do all what possible to check such file before download but this is true that security risk is the main reason that bootstrap files should not be used if possible.