Slow Vista setup on an Intel CRB...

NTDEV
1

ALL:

Has anyone installed Vista (I’m using 6000 x86 CHK) on an Intel
Development Kit board or CRB (I’m using the E7520/600ESB)? Because of
what I’m using the board for, I’ve had to reinstall many times and will
have to do so many more times, and at well over three hours, it’s
presenting a problem. Presumably the checked setup takes longer (I’ve
never timed it), and Vista takes quite a while to install under normal
circumstances, but this is ridiculous. I was wondering if anyone is
aware of a BIOS setting or anything else that might be causing this
problem. I don’t imagine that this is the case, but I’d thought I’d
check before just going to disk imaging or something like that, which,
for a few unrelated reasons, I would prefer not to do.

Presently, nothing is connected to the XDP port, but I have tried
installing with an ECM-50 connected, and, assuming tracing is not
enabled, that does not seem to make much of difference.

Thanks,

mm

2

If anyone is interested, the problem turned out to be that the option to
have the SMBIOS handle the SMI was enabled.

>> xxxxx@evitechnology.com 2007-01-08 17:37 >>>
ALL:

Has anyone installed Vista (I’m using 6000 x86 CHK) on an Intel
Development Kit board or CRB (I’m using the E7520/600ESB)? Because of
what I’m using the board for, I’ve had to reinstall many times and
will
have to do so many more times, and at well over three hours, it’s
presenting a problem. Presumably the checked setup takes longer (I’ve
never timed it), and Vista takes quite a while to install under normal
circumstances, but this is ridiculous. I was wondering if anyone is
aware of a BIOS setting or anything else that might be causing this
problem. I don’t imagine that this is the case, but I’d thought I’d
check before just going to disk imaging or something like that, which,
for a few unrelated reasons, I would prefer not to do.

Presently, nothing is connected to the XDP port, but I have tried
installing with an ECM-50 connected, and, assuming tracing is not
enabled, that does not seem to make much of difference.

Thanks,

mm

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

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3

Looking at your high-level problem:

If I have to re-install something often, I create a second hard disk,
and clone it at the block level; typically into a compressed file (as
that will save on I/O on the destination drive). It’s often a lot faster
than re-installing. When you need a fresh install, just clone it again
from that master file. You need to copy the MBR as well as the partition
table and partition headers, so starting at block 0 and cloning from
there is usually the right thing to do.

It also helps making the installed partition only as big as you need it
(10 GB, say) rather than filling an entire disk. Cloning a “fresh”
install of 10 GB from scratch takes less than four minutes (depending on
disk speeds, of course).

Cheers,

/ h+

Martin O’Brien wrote:

If anyone is interested, the problem turned out to be that the option to
have the SMBIOS handle the SMI was enabled.

>>> xxxxx@evitechnology.com 2007-01-08 17:37 >>>
>>>
ALL:

Has anyone installed Vista (I’m using 6000 x86 CHK) on an Intel
Development Kit board or CRB (I’m using the E7520/600ESB)? Because of
what I’m using the board for, I’ve had to reinstall many times and
will
have to do so many more times, and at well over three hours, it’s
presenting a problem. Presumably the checked setup takes longer (I’ve
never timed it), and Vista takes quite a while to install under normal
circumstances, but this is ridiculous. I was wondering if anyone is
aware of a BIOS setting or anything else that might be causing this
problem. I don’t imagine that this is the case, but I’d thought I’d

4

I appreciate your comments, and have considered doing something along
these lines, but, unfortunately, we have some very unusual requirements
that present problems with this method that, otherwise, would be so very
much better. I desperately wish this would work for us, because there
are many, many days where I feel like my job is actually to install
Windows.

Thanks,

mm

>> xxxxx@mindcontrol.org 2007-01-10 17:13 >>>
Looking at your high-level problem:

If I have to re-install something often, I create a second hard disk,
and clone it at the block level; typically into a compressed file (as
that will save on I/O on the destination drive). It’s often a lot
faster
than re-installing. When you need a fresh install, just clone it again

from that master file. You need to copy the MBR as well as the
partition
table and partition headers, so starting at block 0 and cloning from
there is usually the right thing to do.

It also helps making the installed partition only as big as you need it

(10 GB, say) rather than filling an entire disk. Cloning a “fresh”
install of 10 GB from scratch takes less than four minutes (depending
on
disk speeds, of course).

Cheers,

/ h+

Martin O’Brien wrote:

If anyone is interested, the problem turned out to be that the option
to
have the SMBIOS handle the SMI was enabled.

>>> xxxxx@evitechnology.com 2007-01-08 17:37 >>>
>>>
ALL:

Has anyone installed Vista (I’m using 6000 x86 CHK) on an Intel
Development Kit board or CRB (I’m using the E7520/600ESB)? Because
of
what I’m using the board for, I’ve had to reinstall many times and
will
have to do so many more times, and at well over three hours, it’s
presenting a problem. Presumably the checked setup takes longer
(I’ve
never timed it), and Vista takes quite a while to install under
normal
circumstances, but this is ridiculous. I was wondering if anyone is
aware of a BIOS setting or anything else that might be causing this
problem. I don’t imagine that this is the case, but I’d thought I’d

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer