Re:Windows 96
by Firehawke on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @10:38PM
(#27979772)
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.
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Protip: 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.
Thanks, that would have been really helpful advice a quarter of a century ago :)
funny fact - freedos does not support smartdrv even in 2021
Wow. Why not?!?!
...Hmm, probably undocumented API stuff :/
Smartdrv.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.
the good old day when 4mb of ram would cost an arm and a leg. first upgrade on my old 486dx4 100mhz
Re:Windows 96
by mixmastamyk on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @02:53AM
(#27980995)
You could run smartdrv.exe later, I believe.
Re:Windows 96
by qwerty456127 on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:55AM
(#27981685)
Having 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).