Another reason I do not like...

[SkyMaxx]

PCs. I am taking an online course for a masters program. The course is programming in Visual Basic.NET. The new software required me to update the OS on my PC emulator. Now, I am used to Windows 98 (my old OS) needing about 45 minutes for a clean install and configuration. This XP took almost an hour and a half.

In that amount of time I could have wiped all of my hard drives and installed my Mac OS on each one of them.

Is this a normal thing in the MS world? Lengthy install times for clean installs of an OS? Just wondering.

As for the system...it has plenty of RAM and emulates the latest and greatest chip set.

 

[Diver6127]

From what I have noticed on my pc, laptop or any machine using any type of windows os, yup ... it always takes a long time.

 

[ZANDOR]

sky your lucky it only took you 1 1/2 half hours to do a clean install it took me the better part of 6 hours to do mine.i had to reformat 3 times because of problems.the partisions didn't want to format for poop.iam still un happy with xp.good luck

 

[jon2]

I do know that XP goes through quite a few things when installing on a NEW hardrive. It sucks. But when you just Reinstall it, its not as long.

Jon

 

[SkyMaxx]

I am still installing the applications...that is also taking a huge amount of time...I am so glad that I do not run PCs on a regular basis...this would drive me nuts.

 

[Error401]

A little known fact about installing MS OS's, there's a thing called an OEM deployment. This is for installing the OS on a PC (not an emulator like virtual PC). The install files (i386) are deployed through a network, there is an answer file on a floppy on the target PC that has most of the congiguration and variables that you have to answer during a long install. Pretty much, you boot with an OPK disk with the answer floppy in the drive, the new PC lods up a stripped version of XP (enough to get the network card to function), it logs into the deploy server and brings down the i386 files. Then it rips through the install on autopilot. All told, a complete install takes roughly 30 minutes depending on the drive size (format time).

Point is, on a long install, MS purposely slows down the install process so that users will enjoy reading about all the nifty features that XP has to offer. No poop. I used to work for an OEM and installing MS OS's was a major part of my job. You can even get the OPK to install specific drivers and applications also. Funny thing is, there's not all that much in the answer file that's all that specific. Dploy server name and login, couple basic network questions, local user name and p/w, nothing fancy. But the OPK install is alot faster than longhand. Go figure.

 

[FastEddy]

Funny this thread pops up today.
I just installed Win XP Pro on 2 units yesterday. 1 on an HP laptop 1.5 Celeron and the other was a clone 3.0 with Raid SATA drives.

The laptop took just around an 1.5 hours plus, and the 3.0 took just at 40 minutes. The install time is 100% dependant on hard drive and processor speed.

What pissed me off is the time it took to do the live updates. I installed XP with 1a and using DSL it still took over an hour on each unit and 4-5 reboots to get them up to date.

O- The horror!

On the other hand I sold my Mac last week. After loading OSX that took around 45 minutes I still couldn't operate it with out getting frustrated. Old PC habits die hard.

 

[mcvickj]

I only have to sit through the XP install once. After I get my PC the way I like it with the apps, drivers and updates installed I make a ghost image of the hard drive. Then burn it to CD. I can have my machine back up and running in 30 minutes tops.

 

[Error401]

Originally posted by mcvickj
I only have to sit through the XP install once. After I get my PC the way I like it with the apps, drivers and updates installed I make a ghost image of the hard drive. Then burn it to CD. I can have my machine back up and running in 30 minutes tops.

That's cheating, but it's also a damned good idea. I think Drive Image does the same thing, as well as more and more drive utilities besides Norton Ghost.

 

[El Pirata]

Sky,

 

[FastEddy]

Off topic

The Beatles are suing Apple for trade mark infringement on the Apple Logo.... Again......

Do you know who owns the Beatles Rights and Logos?


HeHe

















A pedophile who's on trial right now.... Building the war chest I guess.

 

[mcvickj]

Originally posted by Error401


That's cheating, but it's also a damned good idea. I think Drive Image does the same thing, as well as more and more drive utilities besides Norton Ghost.

Two big reasons I use Ghost is because if you don't have a 2nd hard drive to dump the image you can feed it a command to burn the image directly to CD as you are making the image. You also feed it a 2nd command to have it break up the image into 700mb chunks. The 2nd reason I use it is because I use it at work on a daily basis so I know the software.

There might be others that do what I just decribed but I have never really looked.

 

[Error401]

The one we used was called Image Blaster by Altiris. we used it to make CD images of installs, as well as imaging multiple machines via multicast. It was ok, did the job and all that, but needed a server to pull the program from on the client machines.

The new Drive Image will burn a machine strait to CDR, and break the image into CD sized chunks. I think it will also allow partitioning and hidden partitioning, then save the image to the hidden partition. Pretty neat, except for when the drive dies. I tried Ghost, but never got the hang of it, and didn't really need it at home, so.... I'm sure that once ya get the hang of it, it'll do what ya need.

 

[El Pirata]

Error, you might want to remember this one too...

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

ImageCast works great too.

I owned an apple once. Just once.

 

[Error401]

I'm not gonna argue about stupid OS's. fiddlesticks it. Run what ya want. They're all evil.

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

Some day, Linux will rule the Earth!

Mac sucks! Microsoft Sucks!

IBM, Linux and my left nut are all the world needs!

 

[El Pirata]

Originally posted by Error401
I'm not gonna argue about stupid OS's. fiddlesticks it. Run what ya want. They're all evil.

Sounds like you have some repressed feelings there buddy.

 

[Error401]

Yeah, feels like it too.

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

I think a Mac bit him in the ass one night while the MS product bitch slapped him.