Anyone else hate installing windows?

[Jon P. Inghram]

I get this feeling that every time I reinstall Windows it somehow sucks a bit of life out of me, sorta like the torture machine in the Princess Bride or something...

I had to reinstall XP last night 'cause my new mobo and stuff arrived, and got most of the "essentals" done. Tonight when I get off work I'll have to finish installing applications and the countless tweaks and adjustments to get it back to "normal."

On a somewhat happier note, it's more than twice as fast as my old system when I ran Prime95 and SuperPi. The x700 Pro is a nice step up from the 8500 too, for example the Matrox Reef demo now works properly (the 8500 didn't have enough simultaneous textures, the caustic lighting effect and some fog was missing) and runs smooth with 4x AA and 16x AF, woot!

[High_Jumbllama]

Naah. Then I'd feel dead. I've installed various flavors and languages over the last ten years. Two dozen or so times not including work and hundreds at my jobs of the time. I make lists of steps. It makes it easier and I am always doing other things waiting for it to finish.

[Jammrock]

I'll be doing a new Windows XP install in a week or two. Finally got budgetary approval for my new computer (in exchange for a new kitchen table set for the wife):

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (dual-core)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-K8N Ultra-9
RAM: 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) Crucial Ballistix DDR400
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5
Hard Drive: 200 GB SAMSUNG SP2004C
Video Card: MSI RX800-TD256E Radeon X800 256MB ($30 MIR)
Power: 380 W SeaSonic S12-380
Thermal: Arctic Silver 5
Thermal Prep: Arctic Clean

Will cost me $1018 USD after I get my $30 back from MSI for the video card.

/me is very excited.

Jammrock

[Dr Mordrid]

Every time I build a new system I do a fresh XP install with NO boards in it, using the embedded lan, audio and graphics if present to complete the setup. If no features are present I install using an old PCI video card in VGA mode.

Once that's done I set uo the network and Ghost the partition for later use if it needs a total reinstall.

Next I install the cards and their drivers before Ghosting again. After that I Ghost every week during normal use.

Uppance: one XP install per system and a set of empty/basic/full backups.

Works just fine for me.

Dr. Mordrid

[dbdg]

When I reinstall it general takes a couple of days to get everything back just the way I like it, I therefore try and do it as infrequently as possible, don't like loosing the time.

[Umfriend]

Let's just say that re-installing winblows is one of the few things that always seems to remain on my to do list...

[VJ]

I use this:

http://www.partimage.org/index.en.html

Windows is installed on my C: drive, along with drivers and 'basic' software. Additional software (Office, ...) is installed on D:, whereas my swap space is on E: (put there on the empty partition, and chose fixed size: it stays 1 block on the drive). My data is put on G:.

On my firewire disk, I have a Fat32 partition (F: ), which holds different images - made with partimage - of my C and D drives:
- basic windows (no drivers)
- windows with drivers
- windows with drivers and basic applications
- windows with drivers, basic applications and additional applications
- in use (made at regular times)

As the swap space is not on C or D, it doesn't take up space in the images. If my windows is broken, I can restore the recent 'in use' image, or the one before that. Only in the event of troubleshooting do I need to restore images from further before.

The basic windows restores in less than 10 minutes, compared to the 45 minutes an XP installation normally takes. My basic Windows also has some tweaks (folder setttings, ...), so that I don't have to re-adjust those.


Partimage is on a Knoppix CD, so if I need to make or restore an image, I just boot from that CD. There probabely are commercial programs that provide a similar functionality, but this totally free system is sufficiant for me.


Jörg

[Marshmallowman]

Wronq question....it should be "does anyone like installing windows", but I guess you would not have got any responses

[Jammrock]

Wronq question....it should be "does anyone like installing windows", but I guess you would not have got any responses

I've installed it so many times I neither like nor dislike it. It's easier than previous versions to say the least. Longhorn is damn easy to install though. There are only 2 seps for the basic install, 3 for the advanced (the extra step is to tell Longhorn where to install).

[VJ]

On my secondary system, I have to press F7 to prevent the system from trying an ACPI bios (the bios isn't 100% acpi compatible) when the system asks to press F6 for additional storage devices. In typical Microsoft style, you don't get a confirmation that you pressed this button; if you pressed it to soon or too late, the system would install, and crash about half an hour later (when the system reboots). Only solution is to reinstall...

On my current system, I must make sure to have a floppy with the scsi drivers, and be sure not to forget to press F6 when the system asks it (again, no confirmation). Luckily, you quickly see if you forgot it or not...
To add to it: when I install SP2 on my system, my Parhelia blanks. I then must boot into safe mode to isntall the Parhelia drivers...

When working with different systems, it is easy to forgot system specific troubleshooting, so one could say I don't really like installing Windows...



Jörg

[Wombat]

On my secondary system, I have to press F7 to prevent the system from trying an ACPI bios (the bios isn't 100% acpi compatible) when the system asks to press F6 for additional storage devices. In typical Microsoft style, you don't get a confirmation that you pressed this button; if you pressed it to soon or too late, the system would install, and crash about half an hour later (when the system reboots). Only solution is to reinstall...

On my current system, I must make sure to have a floppy with the scsi drivers, and be sure not to forget to press F6 when the system asks it (again, no confirmation). Luckily, you quickly see if you forgot it or not...
To add to it: when I install SP2 on my system, my Parhelia blanks. I then must boot into safe mode to isntall the Parhelia drivers...

When working with different systems, it is easy to forgot system specific troubleshooting, so one could say I don't really like installing Windows...



Jörg

I strongly suggest that you look into nLite. You could build an install CD that fixes at least some of those problems.

[VJ]

I strongly suggest that you look into nLite. You could build an install CD that fixes at least some of those problems.

Hey, cool...!
The biggest problem was however finding the correct 'tweaks' during install. I think I've found them all now...

But nlite could be useful... Thanks.


Jörg

[Belwarrior]

hmm... guys ever tried to use your old hdd in your new system/ new motherboard?

have done that a couple of times without crashing windows and without the need to re-install windows. not sure if this can work for you guys.. but you can try it and see if it solves your hassle.

This is optional -> install the drivers for the new mainboard/new stuff - the sound, Lan, chipset etc. bound to have some drivers not install (due to the smarter new drivers )

Under Device Manager -> Change chipset and ide, sata related controllers to standard ones, eg., Intel USB hub to Standard USB hub, Intel PCI IDE controller to Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller. This is so to allow the new hardware to be detected without crashing windows.

place it into the new system and restart

best of luck