Install Windows XP in less than 6 minutes, with all updates, to any hardware... tips

[Knightsman]

This is exactly why I really don't bother to come around very much any more. People get uppity so quickly and start running around with pitchforks. I was a daily reader / contributor and honestly now I probably log in twice a month.



Yes we all do, but not all of us handle it like you have. Bravo.



Not to start a fight or an argument, but my BS meter is pegged right now. Perhaps you can do a clean install of windows 7 on a new machine, but there is no way updates are downloaded and installed in that time. Even on fairly new and modern hardware it still takes a good hour + to download and install all the windows 7 updates. Let alone any other third party software. I'd say it takes me a good 2 hours to start from bare metal and wind up with an updated "base" installation of windows 7.

The real point here is that most hardware that was intended for windows xp is slowwww. By doing it this way, you can take a process that would easily take several hours and get it done in less than half an hour. Perhaps I personally wouldn't use the tools the OP did (and you never know, I might... just really don't see myself paying $300 to try them out) and don't love ZFS, but the article is a good guide for those who may not be familiar with the imaging methods.

And btw, im not running this process on xp age machines.

Also, you can try this process for only $40 with easeus todo backup workstation, or acronis, or any other preferred and reliable imaging software

 

[LifelineIT]

So please clarify for me, as I'm not currently loving my reinstall time sinks.

You're pushing an image that hasn't yet been activated and then just manually installing your drivers and such after that? Or does your image have driverpacks integrated? Or...what?

 

[Knightsman]

So please clarify for me, as I'm not currently loving my reinstall time sinks.

You're pushing an image that hasn't yet been activated and then just manually installing your drivers and such after that? Or does your image have driverpacks integrated? Or...what?

It really depends on your end goal.

Yes, its an image that has not had the serial key entered. Windows 7 typically does a good job after a universal restore, by installing drivers by itself. Ill normally check device manager if there are any other issues.

Now to this, I only do this for clients that i'm upgrading systems to windows 7. I do this with our refurb licenses. You only have 30 days really for an image, If you don't want to do deal with the "activate windows now" popups.

If you are doing this in a shop, there are better was to do this.
This thread is a great example of doing so, without the hassle of the activation issue.
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43617&highlight=lessen+time+installing+windows

 

[brandonkick]

Uh, you can bs meter all you want. Doesn't sound like you have tried this process before.

I've done this multiple times, sounds like the other guy has to. Wouldn't you think we would download and install updates on the computer we created the image from? And then do the same thing every couple of months to have the latest?

Also, no one is talking end user ready, i thought it was obvious you would still need to setup any extra software specific to the customers needs. That holds true no matter what the process is.

Based upon your quote below, I got the idea that you were saying you could install windows 7 from a installation cd and then run all of the windows updates and do everything else in 7 min. I didn't get out of the quote below that this was restoring from an image.

Didn't mean to get anyone ruffled. But i'll stand behind my saying that if you are/were saying you can reload win 7 from an install disk and then do post install work (updates, necessary applications, housekeeping) in less then ten min then yes it is BS.

I have a similar experience, but even a clean install of win 7, takes about 7 minutes total. Either way, it just works, and I'm not complaining.

 

[Knightsman]

Based upon your quote below, I got the idea that you were saying you could install windows 7 from a installation cd and then run all of the windows updates and do everything else in 7 min. I didn't get out of the quote below that this was restoring from an image.

Didn't mean to get anyone ruffled. But i'll stand behind my saying that if you are/were saying you can reload win 7 from an install disk and then do post install work (updates, necessary applications, housekeeping) in less then ten min then yes it is BS.

Clean install means windows 7 over imaging a users drive. It doesnt mean i used a disk. The whole topic was on imaging. So saying clean install is still correct. I wasnt ruffled at all.

 

[zaoka]

So please clarify for me, as I'm not currently loving my reinstall time sinks.

You're pushing an image that hasn't yet been activated and then just manually installing your drivers and such after that? Or does your image have driverpacks integrated? Or...what?

You can activate your copy of Win7, however, I preffer to use available public keys so you dont waste activation.
Once this software restores image you have 3 days to activate. You dont go and activate your key again, instead you click on "change Key" and enter new key from the machine you are working on.

This process gives you millions of options, the main one is to have up to date, tweaked.. Win7 copy, restored to customers machine in about 16 minutes. Compare this to 2 hour or more with the old way, several restarts, downloading updates...
As other tech stated Win7 usually install most of the hardware by itself.

I wait about 5 minutes untill it instals other hardware, in the mean time I increase to full partition size, remove EASEUS... After restart I check for missing drivers.

Once you get familiar with process it takes about 35 to finish the job (with newer machines). You can download drivers from the web during first 16 minutes of restoration process to have them ready...

There are guides on the net how to include extra drivers during your preparation work.

There are other tweaks to increase time, one of them is for Vista. Before creating image you can run cleanup tool to get rid of service pack files that are used if you ever want to uninstall SPs. This will prevent you from uninstalling SPs however it increases reimaging process because there is less files to copy.

 

[Knightsman]

You can activate your copy of Win7, however, I preffer to use available public keys so you dont waste activation.
Once this software restores image you have 3 days to activate. You dont go and activate your key again, instead you click on "change Key" and enter new key from the machine you are working on.

This process gives you millions of options, the main one is to have up to date, tweaked.. Win7 copy, restored to customers machine in about 16 minutes. Compare this to 2 hour or more with the old way, several restarts, downloading updates...
As other tech stated Win7 usually install most of the hardware by itself.

I wait about 5 minutes untill it instals other hardware, in the mean time I increase to full partition size, remove EASEUS... After restart I check for missing drivers.

Once you get familiar with process it takes about 35 to finish the job (with newer machines). You can download drivers from the web during first 16 minutes of restoration process to have them ready...

There are guides on the net how to include extra drivers during your preparation work.

There are other tweaks to increase time, one of them is for Vista. Before creating image you can run cleanup tool to get rid of service pack files that are used if you ever want to uninstall SPs. This will prevent you from uninstalling SPs however it increases reimaging process because there is less files to copy.

Are you installing easeus? We use the usb boot

 

[zaoka]

hi

I install EASEUS before creating image, so it remains installed. Once restored to another system I do uninstall.

I usually boot from USB.

You?

 

[Knightsman]

I install EASEUS before creating image, so it remains installed. Once restored to another system I do uninstall.

I usually boot from USB.

You?

I always use the usb tool. Why do you install it though? Are you creating the image from inside the gui with windows up?

 

[zaoka]

hi

Yes I do?

I was not sure it hardware independent image can be created from booting from USB tool....?

Also I was thinking to install TODO on my tech PC and than connect hard drive from defected machine and perform restoration from my tech PC, did you try this?

That way with i7 machine we could restore images in few minutes...?

 

[Knightsman]

Yes I do?

I was not sure it hardware independent image can be created from booting from USB tool....?

Also I was thinking to install TODO on my tech PC and than connect hard drive from defected machine and perform restoration from my tech PC, did you try this?

That way with i7 machine we could restore images in few minutes...?

You could do that with a bench machine, just do universal restore as always. Not sure if in the process it reads the current hardware ( bench machine) during the restore process.

You can do a universal restore with the usb tool.

It would probably still be fast to setup the image on a shared folder of your network, then run usb tool, than restore from share instead of tying up bench computer.

 

[Omarion6598]

is it just like a windows restore system? you make a image of the whole thing and save it on the net so you can use it anytime from anywhere? if this is how it's happening then it's a brilliant idea...

 

[Xander]

is it just like a windows restore system? you make a image of the whole thing and save it on the net so you can use it anytime from anywhere? if this is how it's happening then it's a brilliant idea...

Not sure how the idea of downloading a multi-GB file "every time" would qualify as brilliant. That would be painfully slow with most providers and would kill bandwidth caps pretty easily.
This would be, if anything, about keeping said humongous file on a local NAS for convenient use.

 

[zaoka]

hi

Storing 5-6GB on the Internet is not a good idea as Xander stated. You could instead store these files on USB Flash Drive (preferabley USB 3), local NAS, external hard drive or internal SATA drive.

Internal SATA drive is the faster way to restore images, I just tested it last week. You just store images to an old internal SATA drive (laptop one is small and handy)....

What I did I installed EASEUS Todo on laptop hard drive so I boot from it and I also store images to the same drive so I can restore from it as well. Speed is noticable faster.

Bad site is that it does not work for laptops because you cant connect additional SATA drive.