XP install takes too long

[moonman]

i'm using OnCommand CCM (symantec now) to distribute software on over 400 clients and also to setup clients completely with xp. but xp takes 1h longer to install than w2000......

there are 3 stages in the unattend-script from symantec:

1) copying the i386-dir from the distribution-server to the client (including client-specific hw-drivers) and starting the unattend-setup with client-specific answer-file

2) xp-setup is copying files to temporary directory in dos-mode

3) xp-setup is installing xp in gui-mode

stage 2 takes around 30min to complete. that seems not normal to me.

but smartdrv gets loaded by the symantec-script.

the installation of xp directly from CD is finished while hd-install is still at stage 2!

anybody knows how to speed it up?

[JPamplin]

Moonman,

Make sure your smartdrv (called in DOS I gather) is given enough ram for a decent cache. I allocate 2048 and turn on caching for the source drive and the target drive and it works well:

smartdrv.exe C+ D+ G+ /V 2048 2048

Try that and see if stage 2 gets faster. It only takes me about 6-7 minutes, but I run everything from a DOS floppy with a TCP/IP stack over a gigabit network.

JP