How to Speed Up Installation/Setup of FoxPro

ID: Q114947

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, and 2.6
• Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, and 2.6

SUMMARY

To speed up the installation of FoxPro, perform one of the following:

• Cache the floppy and/or hard disk.

  -or-

• Copy all floppy disks to a directory on the hard disk, then run the installation/setup program from that directory.

MORE INFORMATION

Caching the Floppy and/or Hard Disks

If you are using Microsoft's SMARTDrive (SMARTDRV.EXE) program, all disks are cached by default. Hard disks are cached for reads and writes. Floppy disks are cached for reads only.

To verify this, type "SMARTDRV" (without the quotation marks) at the MS-DOS prompt. The status table displayed probably shows that drives A and B are cached for reads. The hard disk is probably cached for reads and writes.

If you are using another disk-caching program, check that program's documentation for instructions on how to cache hard and floppy disks.

NOTE: Invoking write-caching on the floppy disks does not reduce installation time.

Copying Floppy Disks to the Hard Disk

NOTE: This method is only worthwhile if you plan to install FoxPro multiple times.

These steps assume the following:

• You are using drive A to read the FoxPro installation disks.
• You want to create a directory named FOXSETUP on drive C that will contain the FoxPro installation files.

      c:
      cd\
      md foxsetup

   following command to copy all files from drive A to the FOXSETUP
   directory:

      copy a:*.* c:\foxsetup

   floppy disk, and then repeat the COPY command shown in step 2. Repeat
   this step for all the floppy disks.

   run the installation program (SETUP.EXE in FoxPro for Windows,
   INSTALL.EXE in FoxPro for MS-DOS) from the FOXSETUP directory.