6 minute windows install?

RockGuitarDude

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
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I installed windows in 6 minutes whereas it used to take me 40 minutes. Is this due to my raid 0 array that I just put in or are the new drives possibly that much faster by themselves? The drives are 2 x SATA Hitachi 160GB 8mb cache 7200 rpm drives. My old drive was a 60GB Western Digital.
 

Battleangel3222

Senior member
Jan 29, 2004
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i guarantee you did not do a full install of windows in 6 minutes without Raptor drives, one hell of CD Reader, and one overclocked to hell processor.
 

RockGuitarDude

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
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Then I'm lying? I don't know what to say. It took 6 minutes. I have an Athlon 64 2800+ and 1 gig of ram. It's not overclocked or anything.
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It typically take 4 minutes to install windows, and that's with a Duron 700 w/ 128 PC2100 &amp; a 20GB 5400RPM HDD. I'd say you are a bit below average.
 

Mik3y

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Mar 2, 2004
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well, its supposedly supposted to take 30-50 min to install. i have no clue how you can install it that fast. its not just the cpu, it'd have to be the harddrive also.
 

Battleangel3222

Senior member
Jan 29, 2004
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Do you know what has to be done? First the files on the Windows CD are compressed, they have to uncompress them, and copy them to the hard drive....this would require one HELL of a CD Reader to do in under 5 minutes (and thats not the GUI based installation).

I had a gig of PC3500 RAM, 3.2C Processor overclocked to 4.0, and a Plextor Premium (currently best CD-Burner/ROM on the market) and it probably takes 12-15 min.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
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Originally posted by: John
It typically take 4 minutes to install windows, and that's with a Duron 700 w/ 128 PC2100 &amp; a 20GB 5400RPM HDD. I'd say you are a bit below average.

That's too much sarcasm.

I think the OP is telling the truth; my Mobile Barton at 2500mhz installs XP in ~10 minutes on my 36GB Raptor. The A64 chips are apparently blazingly fast at XP installs for some reason.
 

Battleangel3222

Senior member
Jan 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: John
It typically take 4 minutes to install windows, and that's with a Duron 700 w/ 128 PC2100 &amp; a 20GB 5400RPM HDD. I'd say you are a bit below average.

The hell? Thats the biggest sack of B$ Ive heard in a LOOOOOOOOONG time.

EDIT: har har? wasnt really funny :-0!

Anyhoo....I think you guys are underestimating the time it takes...try actually TIMING it...from the time its done formatting to the time you make your user account.

Oh also sickbeast, notice...RAPTOR....do you know how blazing fast a raptor is compared to a standard 7200 RPM?
 

RockGuitarDude

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
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I do know what it takes to be done it appears, seeing how my computer did it. I didn't expect to be under such scrutiny over this... just asking why such a performance increase in this upgrade.
 

ectx

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2000
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Originally posted by: John
It typically take 4 minutes to install windows, and that's with a Duron 700 w/ 128 PC2100 &amp; a 20GB 5400RPM HDD. I'd say you are a bit below average.

hehe I'd reinstall evey morning for the heck of it.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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I dunno...that seems too fast still.

I never timed mine, but i have an A64, gig RAM, &amp; 74 GB Raptor...&amp; it took longer than 6 minutes, that's for sure.
 

Battleangel3222

Senior member
Jan 29, 2004
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we cannot tell you because your not telling us the exact truth...for some people it takes 6 min to boot up :-/ lol....

Seriously though...it takes 6 Min just to uncompress and copy the files to your hard drive...so no you are wrong..
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: Battleangel3222
Originally posted by: John
It typically take 4 minutes to install windows, and that's with a Duron 700 w/ 128 PC2100 &amp; a 20GB 5400RPM HDD. I'd say you are a bit below average.

The hell? Thats the biggest sack of B$ Ive heard in a LOOOOOOOOONG time.

EDIT: har har? wasnt really funny :-0!

Anyhoo....I think you guys are underestimating the time it takes...try actually TIMING it...from the time its done formatting to the time you make your user account.

Oh also sickbeast, notice...RAPTOR....do you know how blazing fast a raptor is compared to a standard 7200 RPM?

My point was that from the time you partition and format during setup, to the time it prompts you to type in your name and register windows takes longer than 6 minutes on RGD's system. My rig is a heck of a lot faster than his and it takes me around 10 min.
 

RockGuitarDude

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
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Can anyone help me out with how to create an image of a drive? I would like to set my computer up to ghost the 10GB partition with windows on it so I get that squeaky clean fresh install feeling every week. I already have a partition made to hold the backup file. How do I go about doing this?

The only reason I want to do this is so I don't have to reinstall windows then EVERY program. Is there a way to do this by reinstalling windows and then saving a portion of windows then copying it back?
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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81
Originally posted by: Battleangel3222
Oh also sickbeast, notice...RAPTOR....do you know how blazing fast a raptor is compared to a standard 7200 RPM?

He's using a RAID-0 array which is probably faster than my Raptor for tasks such as this.

You sound shocked, but I've read CPU reviews of the A64 where they say things like this. I read one that said that they installed XP in under 10 minutes.
 

RockGuitarDude

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
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After a little research, I am thinking that the windows installation does a lot of continuous writes where seek times are eliminated and it kinda continuously writes the info supplied to it. Just a guess though, I'm not a computer engineer yet.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
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By the way, to further clear up the misconception, Battleangel should read this about the Raptors.

I wish that article had been published before I had bought mine; it goes down as one of my biggest wastes of money ever on a piece of computer hardware. It's right up there with my Cyrix 166+. :eek:
 

ectx

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2000
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Originally posted by: SickBeast
By the way, to further clear up the misconception, Battleangel should read this about the Raptors.

I wish that article had been published before I had bought mine; it goes down as one of my biggest wastes of money ever on a piece of computer hardware. It's right up there with my Cyrix 166+. :eek:

I am confused. You can do a full reinstall of windoz for <10 min, I'd say this is a dramatic improvement. I have mobile xp xxxx oc to 2,3 to 2.5 and 7200 rpn drives (various brands) but cannot do the winxp install in <30 min ....If I have a rig that can do it in <10min, I'd say it is worth a lot of money as I reinstall pretty -- my oc obseesion necessiates it.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
Originally posted by: ectx
Originally posted by: SickBeast
By the way, to further clear up the misconception, Battleangel should read this about the Raptors.

I wish that article had been published before I had bought mine; it goes down as one of my biggest wastes of money ever on a piece of computer hardware. It's right up there with my Cyrix 166+. :eek:

I am confused. You can do a full reinstall of windoz for <10 min, I'd say this is a dramatic improvement. I have mobile xp xxxx oc to 2,3 to 2.5 and 7200 rpn drives (various brands) but cannot do the winxp install in <30 min ....If I have a rig that can do it in <10min, I'd say it is worth a lot of money as I reinstall pretty -- my oc obseesion necessiates it.

Maybe you're doing things differently than I am. I boot from the XP CDROM and do a quickformat unless I'm in a paranoid state of mind.

Maybe the Raptor is really fast for this. I dunno. :)
 

Gerbil333

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
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Originally posted by: Battleangel3222
i guarantee you did not do a full install of windows in 6 minutes without Raptor drives, one hell of CD Reader, and one overclocked to hell processor.

It's possible. I installed XP Pro from nothing to the desktop in 14 minutes, but that included adjusting the BIOS settings, a long NTFS format instead of the quick option, and then changing the boot order again. I was running an Athlon 64 3000+, 1gb of Kingston HyperX PC3200, and a Samsung 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache SATA hd. I don't know how it did it...the hd formatted in a matter of seconds, whereas my Seagate 120gb PATA drive took at least half an hour!

I'm sure with a RAID array and not including the time to change BIOS settings, 6 minutes is possible. I know people have done it in 6-8minutes before.
 

ectx

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2000
1,398
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Originally posted by: SickBeast
Originally posted by: ectx
Originally posted by: SickBeast
By the way, to further clear up the misconception, Battleangel should read this about the Raptors.

I wish that article had been published before I had bought mine; it goes down as one of my biggest wastes of money ever on a piece of computer hardware. It's right up there with my Cyrix 166+. :eek:

I am confused. You can do a full reinstall of windoz for <10 min, I'd say this is a dramatic improvement. I have mobile xp xxxx oc to 2,3 to 2.5 and 7200 rpn drives (various brands) but cannot do the winxp install in <30 min ....If I have a rig that can do it in <10min, I'd say it is worth a lot of money as I reinstall pretty -- my oc obseesion necessiates it.

Maybe you're doing things differently than I am. I boot from the XP CDROM and do a quickformat unless I'm in a paranoid state of mind.

Maybe the Raptor is really fast for this. I dunno. :)

OK. my next purchase is a raptor.....
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
27,094
16,014
136
I did it on my Athlon64 3000+ on a 5 disk SCSI raid array in 4 minutes. Nobody believed me then...... Now I have dual Opteron 248's, and it took 5 minutes. Whats with that ? Anyway, I could believe it.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
Originally posted by: ectx
Originally posted by: SickBeast
Originally posted by: ectx
Originally posted by: SickBeast
By the way, to further clear up the misconception, Battleangel should read this about the Raptors.

I wish that article had been published before I had bought mine; it goes down as one of my biggest wastes of money ever on a piece of computer hardware. It's right up there with my Cyrix 166+. :eek:

I am confused. You can do a full reinstall of windoz for <10 min, I'd say this is a dramatic improvement. I have mobile xp xxxx oc to 2,3 to 2.5 and 7200 rpn drives (various brands) but cannot do the winxp install in <30 min ....If I have a rig that can do it in <10min, I'd say it is worth a lot of money as I reinstall pretty -- my oc obseesion necessiates it.

Maybe you're doing things differently than I am. I boot from the XP CDROM and do a quickformat unless I'm in a paranoid state of mind.

Maybe the Raptor is really fast for this. I dunno. :)

OK. my next purchase is a raptor.....

I don't think you should do that. Read the article I posted a link to.