Hack 88 Speed up Operating System Installation and Maintenance  
Save
yourself time by making Windows installation files available on your
hard drive. We
know
you've had this
problem: you install a new mouse, change a network setting, do almost
anything that upsets the delicate balance in Windows and
you're prompted to insert the Windows so-and-so CD.
Where is it? Did you grab the right one? If you have a
lot of free disk space (about 700 MB), take a cue from the major PC
makers and copy the files from your Windows CD to your hard drive. In
fact, it's not a bad idea to copy the files before
you install Windows so the resulting installation automatically knows
where to find the files later—thus no prompting to insert a CD
later. PC manufacturers have typically placed the
Windows 95, 98, 98SE, and Me files in a
C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder, and Windows NT,
2000 or XP files into C:\i386.
 | Before
you do any of this, I suggest you load SMARTDRV [Hack #65] . |
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You
can emulate this pattern for Windows 9x-Me by creating these folders
on your hard drive from a DOS prompt, then copying the files from the
CD (assuming this is drive D:) as follows, from the A:\> DOS
prompt: A:\>C:
C:\>MD WINDOWS C:\>MD
\WINDOWS\OPTIONS C:\>MD
\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS C:\>CD
\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS C:\
\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS>COPY
D:\WIN98\*.*
Start the Windows
installation from this folder by typing:
C:\ \WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS>SETUP
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If you feel that the WINDOWS
folder is too vulnerable a place to put
your Windows installation files, try \WINDOWSCD
or something similar. |
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For Windows NT-XP:
A:\>C: C:\>MD
i386 C:\>CD i386
C:\I386>COPY D:\i386\*.*
Start the Windows installation from this folder by running this
command:
C:\I386>WINNT
The next time Windows needs a file from the installation CD it
will automatically look in the appropriate folder, copy the file, and
move on.
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