6 minute windows install?

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
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.

RAID Array + Fast CDROM + Fast CPU = Very, Very Fast Installation.

"5 minutes just to read the files off the CD" -- yeah, maybe if you have a 4x CD-ROM drive. A 48/52x drive can read an *entire CD* in 2-3 minutes, and WindowsXP doesn't install EVERYTHING by default. The biggest limitation, by far, is the hard drive -- and this is one of those situations where a huge transfer rate WILL help you. This is not unreasonable at all.

 

[BaumerX]

QUOTE:
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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.
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Screw the CPU and harddrive. Where the heck did you get a CDrom drive that fast????!!!!

:shocked:

 

[BaumerX]

CD to HD.....CD is by far the bottleneck

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: BaumerX
CD to HD.....CD is by far the bottleneck

1X CDROM = Read 650MB in 74 minutes (4440 sec.) That's .146MB/sec, or ~150KB/sec. 48xCDROM = 48 * .146 ~= 7MB/sec. (it actually ranges from about 3 to 7MB/sec., since it's variable speed.) The CD is the bottleneck while copying files over, but not by much (most 7200RPM drives would be lucky to pull 20-30MB sustained) -- and you can read an entire CD in just a couple minutes at modern speeds. Once you factor in uncompressing things, the hard drive is the bottleneck.

 

[BaumerX]

The sustained transfer rate of the Seagate 7200s is >58MB/sec

LiteOn 48X CDRom is 33MB/sec

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: BaumerX
The sustained transfer rate of the Seagate 7200s is >58MB/sec

LiteOn 48X CDRom is 33MB/sec

Well, that's what they *say*, anyway. Storage Review pegs the Seagate 7200.7s between 40 and 60MB/sec. STR, depending on disk position. I may have been off in my CDROM numbers; I'm going off memory here, so maybe "1x" is faster than 150KB/sec. Also, the CDROM numbers you're quoting are a maximum, since all drives over 20-24x or so are CAV and read faster near the end of the disc than at the start.

In any case, 33MB/sec. is not "bottlenecking" -- at least not too badly -- a hard disk that can read or write 60MB/sec., and at 33MB/sec., you're talking under 30 seconds to read a full CD. So it's not like you need some sort of as-yet-undeveloped CDROM to copy files around very quickly. The limitation then becomes uncompressing the files (which any CPU these days should handle very quickly), copying them to the hard disk, and then actually configuring the system and setting up the registry and drivers (both hard-disk limited tasks).

 

[WobbleWobble]

Re: CD-ROMs

33MB/s is the IDE limit for almost all CD-ROM drives. You're correct with your 150KB/s for 1x calculation Matthias99. Think of writing a CD at 48x, can you do that in 30 seconds or even close? Nope

I wouldn't be too skeptical about the 6 minute number. But I think he may be cheating by a couple minutes.

I have a 36GB Raptor and I think it was a waste of money. I wouldn't now if I had a choice again.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Re: CD-ROMs

33MB/s is the IDE limit for almost all CD-ROM drives. You're correct with your 150KB/s for 1x calculation Matthias99. Think of writing a CD at 48x, can you do that in 30 seconds or even close? Nope

Okay, I THOUGHT I was on the right track with my numbers.

I'd hope a 48x burner could do a burn in about 2 minutes, just as it would take about that long to read a full disk at 48x. But Windows doesn't have to copy the ENTIRE CD to do an installation. Even if it averages, say, 3.5MB/sec. (24x), and it has to read, say, 400MB of data during the install, that's under two minutes of time spent reading data from the CD, so a 6-minute start-to-finish install is not out of the question.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: RockGuitarDude
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?

Yes, you can use ghost to do this. Example, Partition C: OS, Partition D: proggies and games, Partition E: Ghost/clone of OS.

Do your ghost after you have installed the other proggies. That way you won't have to reinstall the proggies when you restore/ghost your backup OS.

 

[BaumerX]

It's been awhile since I installed WinXP but as I recall it took about 20 min with the rebooting etc. Is it really possible that sytems 1-1/2 newer have tripled the time. I know there is alot of variables but everthing I have read on RAID benchmarks etc leads me to believe you might see a 10% improvement over what I have.

To be honest....I don't really know......

I DO know that CDroms will not be replacing HDs anytime soon.

So much to learn....so little time.....

Also as I recall (never timed it though) when I just do a direct copy from my plextor to HD it takes alot longer than from HD to HD.

I do understand about the decompressing files and stuff. 6 min install......guess its time to build a new computer!!!!

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
I'd hope a 48x burner could do a burn in about 2 minutes, just as it would take about that long to read a full disk at 48x. But Windows doesn't have to copy the ENTIRE CD to do an installation. Even if it averages, say, 3.5MB/sec. (24x), and it has to read, say, 400MB of data during the install, that's under two minutes of time spent reading data from the CD, so a 6-minute start-to-finish install is not out of the question.

Well, you're on the right track. After 24x it's no longer a linear increase in speed except for TrueX drives. Every other drive uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) which spins the disc the same speed whether it's reading the inner or outer edge of the disc. You can read the outer edge faster than the inner edge. That's why any drive faster than 24x is a "max speed" drive. Save for the TrueX again.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble

Originally posted by: Matthias99
I'd hope a 48x burner could do a burn in about 2 minutes, just as it would take about that long to read a full disk at 48x. But Windows doesn't have to copy the ENTIRE CD to do an installation. Even if it averages, say, 3.5MB/sec. (24x), and it has to read, say, 400MB of data during the install, that's under two minutes of time spent reading data from the CD, so a 6-minute start-to-finish install is not out of the question.

Well, you're on the right track. After 24x it's no longer a linear increase in speed except for TrueX drives. Every other drive uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) which spins the disc the same speed whether it's reading the inner or outer edge of the disc. You can read the outer edge faster than the inner edge. That's why any drive faster than 24x is a "max speed" drive. Save for the TrueX again.

Um... I said that about 3 posts ago, albeit in fewer words.

Me:

Also, the CDROM numbers you're quoting are a maximum, since all drives over 20-24x or so are CAV and read faster near the end of the disc than at the start.

A "48X" drive actually varies from about 16-24x near the middle (can't remember what it is exactly) to 48x at the outer edge. But I would think that over a long sequence of reads, it would probably average at least 3MB/sec.

 

[Schadenfroh]

install it off of a USB2.0 memory stick and see what kinda installs you get on a WD Raptor 10,000 RPM driver

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Um... I said that about 3 posts ago, albeit in fewer words.

My mistake! :beer:

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Budman
Maybe he installed windows 3.1 ?

That uses floppy disks and would take even longer.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

THat's pretty freakin fast. On my P4 3.2 GHZ PC it takes at least 30 min. But I run a slowass seagate 40gb barracuda.