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the answer i belive is 7zip loads the file into available ram (think smartdrv) before it begins to extract.

basicaly the same idea you had, Get the file onto as fast a media as possable first, then process.
not much faster media than ram for this task. so the lag is ram buffering...

This is why i was curious as to the true performance boost.
In theory the file would be read from the ODD to RAM as a continuous stream until the default block size is hit.
I belive that is 128MB but i am not positive. it is also possable it allocates them in multiples of teh default block size.
(more ram longer to buffer) if i am correct machines with more ram will obvioulsy extract faster, if all other factors are equal.

IE a machine with 4 gig of ram may not benifit at all...
IDK that is why your input is so very imortant to me!
- Thank you for your Time!!!

useing 7zip itself instead of our 7zip wrapper may yield some answers or shed insight to features we are not fully taking advantage of.

as you can see the txt mode operation is not quite the same as a full blown windows operation.
(the drivers that will provide our best performance are not installed yet )

30% faster is quite signifigant. if i can offer that kind of improvement it is worth doing...
- Can we do even better?
- Does the amount of available RAM matter?   I vote yes...
- Can we set the amount of ram that 7zip will use to do the extraction? (like a /RAM=Max switch)
- other programs can extract 7zip files too...
  is there a free extractor with progress bar that is faster?
  perhaps an old version of unzip

side note: I think the additional time required to defrag after this mess will be way more than 2 minutes it saved lol {kidding}

Jeff

Merry Christmas one and all!

No snow in the 'Nati' either high of 56 today (thats like 13 i belive) and a low just below freezing, but no snow.

I wish everyone the very best!

its one of those silly card readers

google PCI\VEN_1180&DEV_0843

because i have not written it yet?

almost any plugin for rvmi will work from nlite - as you have already discovered

here is a wonderful guide for noobs...

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

OK so useing large files with max compression (as we now do)
will effectively get the files off the ODD and onto a HDD in the most efficent manner.
Ready to then be extracted in a fraction of the time.

so all we need is this presetup.cmd to test with

If exist "%systemroot%\system32\setupold.exe" DEL /F "%systemroot%\system32\setupold.exe"

SET TAGFILE=\OEM
FOR %%i IN (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y) DO IF EXIST "%%i:%TAGFILE%" SET CDDRIVE=%%i:& GOTO DPsFound
:DPsFound

Start /wait /high /separate "" XCOPY /S /Y %CDDRIVE%\OEM\. %SystemDrive%\D\

Start /wait /high /separate "" %SystemDrive%\D\bin\un7zip.exe %SystemDrive%\D\DP*.7z %SystemDrive%\

%SystemDrive%\D\bin\un7zip.exe %SystemDrive%\D\bin\*.7z %SystemDrive%\
COPY /Y %SystemDrive%\D\bin\DPsFnshr.ini %SystemDrive%\
IF EXIST %SystemDrive%\D\*.ins COPY /Y %CDDRIVE%\OEM\*.ins %SystemDrive%\

%SystemDrive%\D\bin\DevPath.exe %SystemDrive%\D

START %SystemDrive%\DSPdsblr.exe

EXIT

i haven't tested this but it should be close to done... im sure i snuck a typo in there somewhere.. ;P

....

We had a HUGE number of complaints when we did not have the progress bar because many people belived thier install was hung up and there was a staggering outcry for the progress bar. And i must agree it does seem to be hung up during extraction without that visual feedback.

still thinking... so a M3 slipstream might be like this...

base unpacks our normal DriverPacks
base then repacks the users selected packs into a single large archive with minimal or no compression.
at this point do we still copy to the HDD first or does it not matter without the overhead of compression?

this is somewhat in line with what i have been thinking about for a while.
It is both viable and would not be terribly difficult to do.
fragbert would you please do some more speed tests related to these ideas and report back?

Ie take a normal set of packs and try:
multiple packs with light compression
all combined into a single pack with light compression
multiple packs no compression
all combined into a single pack no compression
and with and without precopy to HDD...
I know it's a lot of work and quite a few blanks to burn.
it may be important to note both IDE and SATA times...
I belive to get the best answer a team effort will be required.
it would save me more than a few hours work (so i can devote more time to other new features and bug fixes. )

If we could really cut our setup time in half i am all for it.
Even if it is only a few minutes now... only a few seconds is better

thinking again...
M2 was optimized for space. with the intention that DriverPacks and an OS could fit on a CD.
Perhaps M3's destiny is speed...
For example I think extraction is faster without the progress bar, so we could skip that too.
tweak as many things as possable for speed and forget about space and asthetics altogether.

M2 gets an upgrade as a byproduct.

PS i don't see any reason why m2 could not be upgraded if there are no issues that result from the change.
it would be easy enough to test we could just post a modified presetup.cmd to use for testing purposes.
We simply add a line to copy the packs to %SystemRoot%\D first
Then modify the line for extraction to reflect the %SystemRoot%\D as the source.
the packs will get extracted to their normal subfolders and then the whole thing is deleted automaticaly by the finisher
if all goes well we could easily implement that change into base / presetup.cmd.

Great post Fragbert...

less compression... hmm

that has merit. good idea!

as long as we are useing simple CDN bandwidth is not a huge concern for releases.

it may be better for the nightlies too IDK

I agree

enter the to be developed Method Three (M3) and SoFI
with huge amounts of space that are available for install media it is my belief that compression is not needed at all.

SoFI (SAD) can be called from runonce and will run against a M1 or a raw extracted folder source.

or the M3 i have been thinking about for a while
IE
extract all DriverPacks to D\
copy D\ from your install media to SystemRoot from presetup.cmd
instead of the extraction routine that is there.
I was not sure that m3 would be faster because of the overhead assosiated with the thousands of small files.
it does create a searchable ODD for the 'found new hardware wizard' as a side effect and could be used as a SAD.

this is the outline for M3...

it seems like a legitimate post other than the link to h*ll
i will remove the link for now...
somebody already noted his account with "Likes to post spam"
his days are numbered...

edit wow that is cut and pasted form the post above it... yikes

he's out of here