TIP: Speed up Windows Installs
This is a discussion about TIP: Speed up Windows Installs in the Windows Hardware category; Ok this is for people that want to keep their current file systems intact. If you plan on doing an upgrade or just a repair install, this can be done with a full install too but i don't recommend it because it can leave some unwanted files and might cause problems.
Ok this is for people that want to keep their current file systems intact. If you plan on doing an upgrade or just a repair install, this can be done with a full install too but i don't recommend it because it can leave some unwanted files and might cause problems.
Anyway its pretty simple. You just start the install from windows instead of booting off the CD. This way the files needed to run setup are copied to a temp directory on your HD so when the 1st files load for setup they will read off your HD instead of your CD increasing the time it takes for the text portion of setup to start.
NOTE: You can also start unattended installs this way using the following command line
<cdrom>\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:1 A:\Winnt.sif
the :1 is the reboot time and the part after it is the location of the windows unattended script file. So another way it could be if i wanted it to reboot in 14 seconds and my answer file was on D: would be
<cd-rom>\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:14 d:\answerfile.txt
this is a fairly easy tip but a lot of people do not know you can do this so just trying to save ya some of those seconds on windows installs. Unless you like pressing buttons and watching propoganda about winxp for 40 mins.
Anyway its pretty simple. You just start the install from windows instead of booting off the CD. This way the files needed to run setup are copied to a temp directory on your HD so when the 1st files load for setup they will read off your HD instead of your CD increasing the time it takes for the text portion of setup to start.
NOTE: You can also start unattended installs this way using the following command line
<cdrom>\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:1 A:\Winnt.sif
the :1 is the reboot time and the part after it is the location of the windows unattended script file. So another way it could be if i wanted it to reboot in 14 seconds and my answer file was on D: would be
<cd-rom>\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:14 d:\answerfile.txt
this is a fairly easy tip but a lot of people do not know you can do this so just trying to save ya some of those seconds on windows installs. Unless you like pressing buttons and watching propoganda about winxp for 40 mins.
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Jun 12
Jun 16
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Hell, I thought this was gonna be a post about drinking while you install... oh well, back to the bottle.
-bZj
-bZj
OP
ahh one of my favorite past times nothing like getting f-ed up while windows installs.
Yeah, and because it takes so long, even using the method you outlined above, to install (fast hardware or not), you can get REALLY f-ed up! 
For those of us upgrading from Win2K, it should really be much faster, considering it's the same base code with a little revisions.... XP's convoluted install routine shouldn't have to go through all the crap that it does when upgrading from Win2K. Just my opinion, of course.... The engineers do have better things to worry about than making Win2K --> WinXP installs go faster, I guess....
For those of us upgrading from Win2K, it should really be much faster, considering it's the same base code with a little revisions.... XP's convoluted install routine shouldn't have to go through all the crap that it does when upgrading from Win2K. Just my opinion, of course.... The engineers do have better things to worry about than making Win2K --> WinXP installs go faster, I guess....
