XPe,nLite??

stric · 12-30-2004, 04:52 PM

Why not to use XPe? Wouldn't that reduce boot time?
Could some of you who have XPe and nLite post your boot times?

egeekial · 12-30-2004, 04:53 PM

XP Embedded has to be customly built. It is a big pain in the ***, and this is why we are taking components of it and putting them into our nLited XP Pro installs.

IntellaWorks · 12-30-2004, 05:35 PM

Also, XPe was built off of Pro components... since the machines in our cars and trucks are similiar to home computers in that they play media and run multiple applications at the same time with networking support.... It's much easier to use an OS built to do this... than to build an OS from scratch to do this...

lars46 · 12-30-2004, 07:29 PM

I am using Xp Pro and from when I apply power till I get to the desktop is 15 seconds. Only 5 seconds is disk drive usage. The secret to the fast boot is SATA and ReadyOn.

egeekial · 12-30-2004, 07:30 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by lars46

I am using Xp Pro and from when I apply power till I get to the desktop is 15 seconds. Only 5 seconds is disk drive usage. The secret to the fast boot is SATA and ReadyOn.

ReadyOn?

lars46 · 12-30-2004, 07:44 PM

In short, ReadyOn makes an image similar to suspend to hard drive and write protects your drive. You turn the power on and when you are done, kill the power ( do not shut down the computer.)

The link for ReadyOn is www.vci.com

More info here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...hlight=readyon

SFiorito · 12-30-2004, 08:00 PM

You should give EWF and HORM (hibernate once, resume many) a try. Check this forum for instructions. It's what ReadyOn provides, but I'd be interested to see if it's faster or not than ReadyOn on your hardware. I read the ReadyOn thread a while ago and the results seemed mixed. Most of the people looking to use XPe components on XP Pro are doing so for cost, simplicity, reliability, and most importantly to install on a CF card (for temperature, shock, or size reasons).

lars46 · 12-30-2004, 08:40 PM

I am not using a SATA drive in my truck pc. I use a notebook drive that is good for about 250 g's when running and am still getting 25 seconds from when power is applied to the desktop. OS size is not a concern for me when my GPS programs and my MP3's take up 35 gigs

egeekial · 12-31-2004, 04:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by lars46

In short, ReadyOn makes an image similar to suspend to hard drive and write protects your drive. You turn the power on and when you are done, kill the power ( do not shut down the computer.)

The link for ReadyOn is www.vci.com

More info here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...hlight=readyon

Yeah, I remember that thread, but I thought it was concluded to be VaporWare. Do you have it?

lars46 · 12-31-2004, 05:04 PM

Yes I do and I like it. If you want to make changes to the system, just flush the image, make the changes and reboot. Then you make a new image and your good to go. James Redmond (jredmond@VCI.com) is the Rep I dealt with. There are a few learning curves like disabling ReadyOn for your removable drives because If you don't, the blue screen of death. Seems to work with all on my hardware. The only hardware change was to move the USB GPS off the hub and put it directly to the PC.

knubile · 01-01-2005, 01:22 AM

I can't make out anything readyon does that SFiorito and I haven't accomplished using components from XP embedded.
With what we figured, anytime you hibernate it creates a new image(no flushing). Anytime you shutdown normally it will start up again from the last saved image. That simple.
Is there anything else readyon allows you to do lars46?

lars46 · 01-01-2005, 03:31 AM

I noticed that you have your OS and apps on Sandisk Extreme 1G CF Card. Where do you have your MP3's and GPS software??? Are they on a standard hard drive??? If so, aren't you defeating your purpose of having the CF Card??? To answer your question, they are about the same but for me ReadyOn is better for me because I do not know anything about programming and at 50 and being dyslectic I have no wish to

rando · 01-01-2005, 10:03 AM

I thought the big issue with ReadyOn was single unit licensing. When last I spoke with James @ VCI they hadn't decided how they would handle it. Apparently they hadn't anticipated it being sold that way and thus didn't build in appropriate mechanisms to protect it from illegal distribution.

In any case, from what I read in the ReadyOn thread and the EWF thread, the two solutions appear to have identical functionality. It's hard to get a definititive idea of actual boot speeds since few posters bother to specify their full configuration (hardware and software), test conditions, and measurement methodologies. Lack of standard process for doing this almost certainly accounts for the wide variation in reported boot times ~(3 - 60s).

SFiorito · 01-01-2005, 12:06 PM

There's no programming involved in using EWF. From what I've read of ReadyOn, EWF is probably less if not just as complicated as ReadyOn....and it's free...

The reason I'm using the CF card is so I can fit the whole system into the smallest enclosure as possible and with a CF card the temperature of the system will be very low. My media files will be on an external drive. Right now it'll be a usb laptop drive, but in the future I want to keep everything in a portable harddrive player (like a creative zen) so I don't have to continuously shuffle songs and videos all over the place. Keeping data files on an external drive doesn't defeat the purpose because we can remove the external drive when we're not using the car, so in the heat and cold the CF card will be fine and the harddrive will be safe indoors.

knubile · 01-01-2005, 12:08 PM

Updated my sig lars46.