I’m sure my readers at some time or another have had the pleasure of installing Windows XP. They will also probably had the pleasure of having to wait 3/4 of an hour for it to finish! Well, there is a solution!
Furthering the idea of putting the disk install image in RAM before installing, why not write to a Virtual hard drive, also in RAM (if your using VirtualBox)! Specify /tmp as the prefix to your disks name in the “Virtual Disk Location and Size” dialogue window. The result? An installation of windows that will reboot in about 15 seconds. Of course, this is good for some tasks, but not all! Your millage will vary!
NOTE01: I would recommend your have at least 3GB of RAM before trying this!
NOTE02: If you want to keep the install for good, you will need to copy it off /tmp before you reboot, otherwise your virtual drive will be gone!
I must admit though, it still wont solve any post-install issues!
Tags: install, RAM, windows xp
I can beat that install time!
Clone a WinXP from a pre existing xVM virtualised machine on a zfs zvol.
root@frank / $ zfs clone tank/xVM/cupcake@installed tank/xVM/fairycake
takes about 2 seconds (OK so this is sorta cheating!)
ahhh!! ya got me!