What is the fastest way to load Windows XP?

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Unknown User

I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
 
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

No, EPROMs, flash, static rams are far too slow for this and
I'd imagine your CPU plus windows would still slow things
down.

Closest thing to your goal is probably a "suspend-to-ram"
feature that doesn't actually boot the system nor shut it
down and has to have power to continually refresh the system
memory.

There are embedded versions of windows though, but I don't
know about XP, what's available at this point in time from
3rd parties... thought Microsoft only did derivatives like
CE but you might check with them too. As for loading a
"normal" XP installation in 2-3 seconds I don't think that
is possible at all, even if you had it all in dynamic DDR
memory somehow.
 
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
Click to expand...


Even in emulation it takes longer than that to start up. You are out of
luck.
 
Unknown User said:
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I'm sure if you could get windows to start in 2-3 seconds MSFT would be
interested to know how it's done. It takes even longer than that to spin up
the HDD and come out of hibernation on most machines.

I'm curious as to why you need/want this capability - is it just that it
would be nice or do you have a specific intention in mind? Perhaps if you
can put your request into context there may be other ways of getting what
you want accomplished.

Paul
 
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?
Click to expand...
ISTR that there was some kind of home-theatre device that booted up a
(custom, stripped-down?) version of Linux to run the cd/DVD player in
some smallish number of seconds, or you could spend ages waiting for
Windows to load if you wanted to spam the world.

As far as getting Windows to load that quickly, without being able to
specify the hardware/ROMs, or modify the source to put in any
enhancements or optimisations you can think up, you're pretty much SOL
as far as I can see.

Sorry.

CK
 
Unknown said:
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.

Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I
could install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus
throughput? Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
NO
Xp won't load in 3 seconds no matter what you do.
just leave the machine on 24/7
 
If you want to get Windows XP "loaded" faster, serve it two
Martini's... ;-)
Click to expand...

forget the Martini... go straight for good ol moonshine. Curls your toes
and kills your brain cells. :P
 
I think the fastest way of loading Windows is from a CD-Key.
Though, I guess it will take longer then 3-4 sec.
 
I'm looking for a way to load Windows XP extremely fast on an x86
computer. I guess 2-3 secs would be fine.
I have configured 2 SCSI 10,000 rpm HDD in Rack-0, but it is not fast
enough.
Click to expand...

wow, high expectations .. :-)
IMHO unreal in real life ... I am dreaming also something about that
but with Win98seExtraLite .. :-)
Is there a way to attach a sort of Eprom, or Flash RAM from which I could
install/boot/load Windows XP and that would use 100% Bus throughput? Do
you have other suggestions?
Click to expand...

first you should find a MoBo that does boot check/post routines in
seconds after boot & fastest CPU (maybe modded Bios to skip certain
ones) & than ..

A solid state IDE flash drive (damn expensive!)
as a master with a stripped down (www.litepc.com) install?

or cheaper: Ide2compactFlash adapter with Compact Flash card
as master with embeded/stripped down install (temp & other such stuff
in a Ram drive?

or baterry backup powered modded MoBo that can (when Powered PC down)
still refresh memory in the system & keep alive the OS there ...?
Similar to this (an embeded PCI PC with baterry back up) pushed into
PCI slot of an exixtent MoBo (something like this: att.wrapped!)
http://www.newegg.com/app
/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-998-602&depa=0
or something like this:
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews
/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD0xMDM2
 
wow, high expectations .. :-)
IMHO unreal in real life ... I am dreaming also something about that
but with Win98seExtraLite .. :-)
Click to expand...

IMO, that is a more realistic goal. Seems like I read of
someone trimming down Win98SELite till it was less than 30MB
total, but I can't remember where I saw that... Google would
probably find something.

first you should find a MoBo that does boot check/post routines in
seconds after boot & fastest CPU (maybe modded Bios to skip certain
ones) & than ..

A solid state IDE flash drive (damn expensive!)
as a master with a stripped down (www.litepc.com) install?
Click to expand...

While flash has very low latency, it also has very low read
and write speeds. I suspect a decent hard drive would
actually be faster.

or cheaper: Ide2compactFlash adapter with Compact Flash card
as master with embeded/stripped down install (temp & other such stuff
in a Ram drive?
Click to expand...

Just check the specs for the adapter and compact flash card,
because the older ones only support PIO mode, and without
anything specifying DMA, it's not likely to support it.

PIO mode is going to be very bad for a bloated OS like
WinXP. Maybe Win98Lite with sufficient memory, you could
create a ramdrive and copy a compressed image off of the
flash into the ramdrive. That would make the booting take
even longer, but at least it might run good when it got done
booting.
 
kony said:
While flash has very low latency, it also has very low read
and write speeds. I suspect a decent hard drive would
actually be faster.
Click to expand...
Although common Flash memory drives such as pendrives and memory cards in
readers etc have very low throughput capabilities, there are solid state
devices which dont use conventional EEPROM memory as in the above examples.
This would compare favourably with RAM speeds and much faster than HDDs. The
down side is its still very expensive.
Just check the specs for the adapter and compact flash card,
because the older ones only support PIO mode, and without
anything specifying DMA, it's not likely to support it.

PIO mode is going to be very bad for a bloated OS like
WinXP. Maybe Win98Lite with sufficient memory, you could
create a ramdrive and copy a compressed image off of the
flash into the ramdrive. That would make the booting take
even longer, but at least it might run good when it got done
booting.
Click to expand...

I'm still keen to find why the OP wants or needs this level of speed. I
thought all the computers on the starship enterprise had already been
developed (although I'm not sure they run Win XP).

Paul
 
I'm curious as to why you need/want this capability - is it just that it
would be nice or do you have a specific intention in mind? Perhaps if you
can put your request into context there may be other ways of getting what
you want accomplished.

Paul
Click to expand...


Thank you Paul. It is just for fun ;) Windows, without others programs
(Norton, etc.) loads in 7 seconds here (the desktop appears in 7 sec.)
with 2 WD Raptors in Raid-0.
 
Unknown User said:
Thank you Paul. It is just for fun ;) Windows, without others programs
(Norton, etc.) loads in 7 seconds here (the desktop appears in 7 sec.)
with 2 WD Raptors in Raid-0.
Click to expand...

I admire your high aspirations! If I could get Windows XP (Pro) to load in 7
seconds on any of my machines I'd be delighted. As it stands this machine
I'm using now takes about 20 seconds just unitil it completes POST (while
its writing zeros to test the ECC memory) and even though it has a RAID 0+1
setup it's still another 20 or so seconds until it gets to the desktop (and
then a few more seconds for my startup folder items to load). All of the
very powerfull SMP machines I've come across when I worked as a computer
tech took ages to boot (server OS's) so its not just a case of having fast
CPUs and good storage I/O. I did try Win XP on one of them once (just as a
trial before I loaded Win 2k Server on it) and it wasn't that much faster
booting XP. I think the key to a fast boot is to have a simple configuration
with the smallest possible number of hardware items in the machine. Anything
that needs initialising during the boot process eg RAID controller chips,
NICs etc is just going to add to the boot time.

Paul
 
A solid state IDE flash drive (damn expensive!)
Click to expand...

Thanks Spajky, I found a solid state HDD (http://tinyurl.com/bcnhy) but it
doesn't say what the throughput is. Any idea? I guess the limit would be
the bus of my mobo! But I'm puzzled because I also found another one
(http://www.memtech.com/25inch.html) with a 20MBps throughput !? I guess
they forgot a zero.

or cheaper: Ide2compactFlash adapter with Compact Flash card
as master with embeded/stripped down install (temp & other such stuff
in a Ram drive?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about it, but I don't know how good is throughput of an IDE
to CompactFlash combo... Do you know?

or baterry backup powered modded MoBo that can (when Powered PC down)
still refresh memory in the system & keep alive the OS there ...?
Similar to this (an embeded PCI PC with baterry back up) pushed into
PCI slot of an exixtent MoBo (something like this: att.wrapped!)
http://www.newegg.com/app
/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-998-602&depa=0
Click to expand...


This is probably the best solution, don't you think so? It isn't very
expensive either because basically you use RAM as if it were the Flash
drive (although you have to load Windows one time!). Do you have other
recommendations to keep RAM alive, do you know other models of Mobos that
do that?

Thanks again,
 
IMO, that is a more realistic goal. Seems like I read of
someone trimming down Win98SELite till it was less than 30MB
total, but I can't remember where I saw that...
Click to expand...

I trimmed down w95B to less than 9Mb, but still does not boot less
than 5 seconds; IMHO the problem is in legacy IDE drive running before
OS is full loaded to drivers kick in for DMA ...
Does anybody know a solution to enable DMA right at boot in Dos?

now I got an idea to speed it up; will check adding smartdrv to
Autoexec.bat if helps ...
 
Thanks Spajky, I found a solid state HDD (http://tinyurl.com/bcnhy) but it
doesn't say what the throughput is. Any idea?
Click to expand...

around 8Mb/s, normal latest big 7,2kRpm HDs have around 10MB/s (WD
Raptors76 10kRpm around 14Mb/s) so it is slower in sustained data
transfer; But for seaking files is 10x faster !!! (no meccanical
parts!) - thats why so expensive! The second one down there is much
faster, because of 16Mb fast cache Ram built it !!! (also bigger &
even more expensive, but if money is not a problem ....)
I guess the limit would be
the bus of my mobo!
Click to expand...

IMHO not!
& another thing to take care: for these Solid state disks to put them
on a regular MoBo, you need an adapter (laptop2regular) IDE interface
(different pin count!)
But I'm puzzled because I also found another one
(http://www.memtech.com/25inch.html) with a 20MBps throughput !? I guess
they forgot a zero.
Click to expand...

no, they did not, it is sustained data /BIG files/ transfer !!! (not
peak bandwith which almost never occurs! in real life ). That is as
fast as 15kRpm SCSI drive or WD Raptor76 in Raid0-but with files seek
times few times shorter-a real beast! & if no problems with money to
"throw away" :-) , GET IT ! :-) (I do not know if supports DMA, ask
them, because results with it are much better-less impact/hogging on
CPU performance! same time) ...

But more wise TEST IT before paying it with this:
http://users.volja.net/jerman55/SiSoftSandraMin.zip
/see inside Read_me file; 460kB stripped, no install/

for example: WD Raptor76 gets drive index of 42.000 points!

If you test it, send me Mail with a result! :-)

BUT if money is no issue, here is another option:
-hardware !!! SCSI Raid controller add on card+
2x 15kRpm SCSI HDs ! (could be faster than that Flash drive, but here
is "dentists drilling" noise of HDs spinning & heat involved, also
longer Post routine, but larger capacity too . (mail me drive index
results if U test!)

Best would be if you could test different setups with that mine Sandra
before buying stuff! Check if can DMA on both & all type of drives be
set & if can, enable it!
I was thinking about it, but I don't know how good is throughput of an IDE
to CompactFlash combo... Do you know?
Click to expand...

not so good, around a Mb or 2/s

This down was just mine idea:
This is probably the best solution, don't you think so? It isn't very
expensive either because basically you use RAM as if it were the Flash
drive (although you have to load Windows one time!).
Click to expand...

And also using ECC Ram would be a must there too.
Battery duration could be an issue here, there are embeded PC cards
(older ones) with not so demanding CPUs on there ...
Do you have other
recommendations to keep RAM alive, do you know other models of Mobos that
do that?
Click to expand...

no, but don´t you think that as common mortals we are dreaming already
now too much? (or ... you really have to much money to throw away ...
in that case I would opt in 2 those biggest solid state disks in Raid0
option ... :-))))))
(than IMHO CPU would be too slow too boot OS enough fast...)
:-))))
 
they did not forgot to add zeroes to the price ... :-( supports DMA
.....
HOLLY SHIT! $$$$$$ 2.500.- $$$$
 
around 8Mb/s, normal latest big 7,2kRpm HDs have around 10MB/s (WD
Raptors76 10kRpm around 14Mb/s) so it is slower in sustained data
Click to expand...


Are you sure? Here copying an entire movie (700MB) from one raid array to
the other takes less than 10 seconds. I found out from a review that you
can read at 55MBps and write at 33MBps. I think you can almost double this
transfer rate if you have 2 HDD in RAID-0. Here's an exerpt from the
review:

"HD Tach?s sequential read test (which calculates the average data reading
rate across a whole platter) coughed up a score of 55.1MB/s. Writing
across an entire platter was equally impressive at 33.5MB/s. That?s a
whopping 20 percent faster than yesterday?s champ, the IBM Deskstar
180GXP!".

Full article: http://www.maximumpc.com/features/feature_2003-03-17.html

I just ran Sandra to have an idea. It says "SATA150 3.5' 2x Raid0 (36GB)
Drive Index: 95MB/s" - Is this the throughput?
 
I admire your high aspirations! If I could get Windows XP (Pro) to load in 7
seconds on any of my machines I'd be delighted. As it stands this machine
I'm using now takes about 20 seconds just unitil it completes POST (while
its writing zeros to test the ECC memory) and even though it has a RAID 0+1
setup it's still another 20 or so seconds until it gets to the desktop (and
then a few more seconds for my startup folder items to load). All of the
very powerfull SMP machines I've come across when I worked as a computer
tech took ages to boot (server OS's) so its not just a case of having fast
CPUs and good storage I/O. I did try Win XP on one of them once (just as a
trial before I loaded Win 2k Server on it) and it wasn't that much faster
booting XP. I think the key to a fast boot is to have a simple configuration
with the smallest possible number of hardware items in the machine. Anything
that needs initialising during the boot process eg RAID controller chips,
NICs etc is just going to add to the boot time.

Paul
Click to expand...

True, a loaded system with lots of configuration tweaks,
networking and software tools (in other words, a very
functional system) will take longer to boot. If one could
strip windows down to the point where it's only taking a few
seconds then it would have to be so specific in purpose that
one has to wonder if windows is even the right OS for the
job.
 
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