3 ms·
This is why I would create a c:\wininst folder and dump the CD worth of files. When I needed to do an OS reinstall, I'd boot to DOS mode, cd \wininst, and do th
by Firehawke 5y ago
This is why I would create a c:\wininst folder and dump the CD worth of files. When I needed to do an OS reinstall, I'd boot to DOS mode, cd \wininst, and do the install from hard drive to hard drive. Much MUCH faster and much MUCH less painful.
- wruza 5y agoProtip: Windows 95 (and 98) installs much faster hdd-to-hdd if you start smartdrv.exe in your config.sys/autoexec.bat even with minimal write cache.
- thomasz 5y agoThanks, that would have been really helpful advice a quarter of a century ago :)
- mixmastamyk 5y agoYou could run smartdrv.exe later, I believe.
- inglor_cz 5y agoSmartdrv.exe was a vital utility on DOS systems. You had to unload it to play some games, though, otherwise they wouldn't fit into memory (DOOM on 4 MB systems, Duke Nukem on 8 MB systems). God, I am old.
- spinny 5y agothe good old day when 4mb of ram would cost an arm and a leg. first upgrade on my old 486dx4 100mhz
- qwerty456127 5y agoHaving the CD dump on the hard drive was a must in the Windows 9x days because every time you would want to add a device, a network protocol or whatever it would ask you to insert the CD. I rarely ever installed from the actual CD directly but always copied it to the hard drive first. Obviously there there were exceptions because some computers just had too little of HDD space so you had to save it for your user files and the apps to be installed (this also is the case with 120 GB MacBooks nowadays - I can't afford a Windows VM on it).