lucasbytegenius
Well-Known Member
Guide To Faster Operating System Install Times
By lucasbytegenius
By lucasbytegenius
As anyone who has ever installed an OS knows, it can really get dull and frustrating during the time it takes to install. Well, here are a few legal, easy, and fast ways to significantly speed up the install process for Microsoft Windows and Apple’s Mac OS X.
Your hard disk drive is faster
Installing from a CD or DVD drive is slow, no matter how fast your machine is. Most people who install programs from their hard drives or memory sticks notice how much faster it is to install compared to CDs and DVDs. So, it stands to reason that installing an operating system from a hard disk or memory stick is much faster than from CDs and DVDs.
Here are some techniques I use to install Windows and Mac OS X:
For Windows:
There are two ways to put the Windows installation files on a hard disk or memory stick: One way is to copy the entire contents of the Windows CD or DVD to an empty partition on the disk, and if your computer’s BIOS supports it, temporarily select a device to start up from. Otherwise, you have to go into your BIOS, and explore to find out how to change the boot device priority. This is a hassle, and you have to revert back to the drive you’re installing to after the first restart after booting from the CD or DVD. If you’re installing a 64-bit Windows version, you’re forced to do this.
But there is a better way, and this works great if you’re installing Windows XP, Vista or 7 (32-bit) on a netbook or other computer without a CD or DVD drive. Download Win-to-Flash at the Win-to-Flash website, and as a stand-alone application, there is no installation, great if you have BartPE or WinPE. Run Win-to-Flash, and click the “Windows Setup Transfer Wizard” button, as shown.
Once the Wizard opens, click Next.
Now, on this page, select the drive letter of your Windows CD or DVD, or, if you copied the files to a partition or folder, navigate to it by clicking Select. Then, select the empty destination, either a flash drive or a hard disk partition, depending on how you want to install. When you’re finished, click Next.
Accept the license agreement, making sure that you are allowed to make a backup copy, as defined in section 10 a.
The transfer will start, formatting the drive, making it bootable, and transferring the Windows setup files.
When the transfer is complete, click Exit. Sometimes the program has errors when formatting the drive (it is the beta version, after all) so if it happens you will have to click the link to return to the main screen or open WintoFlash again and select the Advanced tab, and in the Process Steps tab, deselect Format Drive, and go from there. Also recommended for advanced users (pretty much all of us). Similar to the Wizard, the Advanced tab has tweaks like the ability to automatically accept the EULA, enter the product key, and more.
For Mac OS X:
There are several ways, but the easiest comes with the Mac OS. Disk Utility is a great application that has been shipped with Mac OS X since 10.0. No downloads here, just open the Finder and navigate to /Applications/Utilities/ or press Shift+Command+U and open Disk Utility. If you booted from the Mac OS X install CD or DVD, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Next, select the Mac OS X CD or DVD and click the Restore button.
Then drag the OS X CD or DVD into the Source box and then drag the disk or partition to receive the setup files to the Destination. Click Restore.
You may have to restore multiple times if the setup files are on several CDs. Just don’t erase the destination and it will work.
Note before you click Restore:
Be sure your license from Apple allows you to make a backup copy. For Leopard and maybe Snow Leopard, open the Welcome to (codename) in the Instructions folder on your Mac OS X DVD. The license is in Chapter 3, and the article is section 2, C.
The transfer of the Mac OS X setup files is complete when there is no longer a progress bar in the lower right of the Disk Utility window.
To boot from the hard disk or memory stick, open System Preferences>Startup Disk, enter your administrator’s password if necessary, then select the disk you restored to with Disk Utility, and then click Restart. If you booted from the CD or DVD, select Startup Disk in the Utilities menu, and select the disk you restored to with Disk Utility. You can also hold down the Option key after the startup chime, and select a disk.
Less stuff, less time
In Mac OS X, and some older versions of Windows, you can customize what is installed. For example, in Mac OS X, by default all the language packs are installed. You most likely don’t speak or use all those languages, and they take up several gigabytes of space.
Since almost no one uses Windows ME or earlier anymore, this section is devoted to Mac OS X.
Mac OS X Customization
Here’s how to make your Mac OS X installation lean’n’mean.
In Leopard and later, boot from the installation CD, DVD, memory stick, or partition, then select your language, click the arrow, click Continue, click Agree when the license agreement appears, select the destination to install to, click Continue, and then click Customize in the lower left of the Installer window. Deselect the packages you don’t need, such as language translations and some printer drivers, then click Done and click Install. Tip: If you only speak English, you can deselect all the language packs.
In Tiger, boot from the installation CD, DVD, memory stick, or partition, then select your language, click the arrow, click Continue, click Continue, click Agree when the license agreement appears, select the destination to install to, click Continue, then click Customize in the lower left of the Installer window. Deselect the packages you don’t need, such as language translations and some printer drivers, then click Install. Tip: If you only speak English, you can deselect all the language packs.
Conclusion and Notes
You have just learned how to boost installation time on Microsoft Windows and Apple’s Mac OS X. We hope this guide helped you. This guide is best used if you are having errors during installation and have to restart the installation or need to have a quick way to install next time. It is, however crazy it might seem, quicker to copy from CD or DVD than to install. Why? Because it’s faster to access data continuously, like when copying, than to access it at different points on the disk at random, like when installing from CD or DVD.
If this hasn’t been expressed enough, READ YOUR LICENSE before transferring the setup files.
When a license says you can only use one copy of the software on one computer, it means that only one installation can be performed from the media on one computer, and you can’t use the media on another computer unless you destroy the previous installation. In a nutshell, one disc, one computer, at one time.
When a license allows you to make a “Backup copy”, it means that you can make one copy of the disc, but only use one of the copies. Like in this case, once you transfer the setup files, the media you transferred from can’t be used until the copy you made is destroyed. So if you want to use your Windows or Mac OS X CD or DVD again, you have to format the partition you transferred the setup files to before you can use it.
Be aware that neither the author nor computerforum.com shall be held accountable for any damages, license invalidations, loss of data, and/or other. This document is only a guide, you the reader and/or executor are solely held responsible for any broken laws, loss of your software license and/or other. We have no part in this whatsoever, and we will not respond to a lawsuit.
When transferring setup files to a memory stick or partition, be sure you don’t have anything on it.
If you do get an error while using WintoFlash during formatting, your device may be unreadable and appear corrupted. You will have to open Disk Management and repartition the device. No known reason why this happens.
The operating systems used during the writing of the guide are Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate and Apple Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger.
All trademarks belong to their respective owners, i.e. Windows belongs to Microsoft Corporation and Mac OS X belongs to Apple, Inc.
Please post comments and suggestions.
