Amazingly fast Mac OSX remote disc installation!!!

[andrewp]

Well I just reinstalled my Macbook air Rev B 1,87ghz 120 gb...

I've read many reviews saying that the remote disc installation takes 5-6 hours, so after loading the installation, I thought that I would leave it working through the night...
However the "time left" only showed 1,2 hours

In total it took me no more than 1 hour to get a fresh Mac OSX using Wlan...it's simply amazing in my opinion, I even don't know whether the external drive would have done it better.

So don't be scarde to reinstall it with remote disc guys, or waste money on the drive unless you really need it.

 

[andreab35]

Wow... that's very good to know!
Thank you for posting your positive experience.

 

[kvasir]

I had the exact same experience, but mine clocked in around an hour and 15 minutes.

I used my wife's MacBook over a 802.11n connection (Time Capsule).

Remote disk is really cool. No need for the SuperDrive unless you don't have another computer or if you would like to burn a DVD. Smaller installations had no issue (Office).

 

[justit]

I still think 1 hour is a bit pathetic in todays world.

Why the MBA can't load from disk images to a connected USB drive is beyond me. Yes installation needs to reboot but a simple software switch to look for attached disk images would solve this problem.

 

[andrewp]

I still think 1 hour is a bit pathetic in todays world.

Why the MBA can't load from disk images to a connected USB drive is beyond me. Yes installation needs to reboot but a simple software switch to look for attached disk images would solve this problem.

Actually 1 hour is perfect...Have you seen how Windows laptops perform?

A Vista installation on a HP or Toshiba usually takes about 2 hours, and the data is even included on the HDD or CD.

 

[Consultant]

I still think 1 hour is a bit pathetic in todays world.

Why the MBA can't load from disk images to a connected USB drive is beyond me. Yes installation needs to reboot but a simple software switch to look for attached disk images would solve this problem.

All intel mac can boot from bootable USB drives if you know what you are doing.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I still think 1 hour is a bit pathetic in todays world.

Why the MBA can't load from disk images to a connected USB drive is beyond me. Yes installation needs to reboot but a simple software switch to look for attached disk images would solve this problem.

Well, clearly the MBAir isn't for you and such but ...

All intel mac can boot from bootable USB drives if you know what you are doing.

Exactly.

 

[elppa]

Compared to 15/20 minutes from DVD?

That's about how long Leopard takes I believe if you're just doing a single language without printer drivers.

One of the features of Snow Leopard is a feature called ImageBoot, which allows for any DMG or ISO outside the main partition to be bootable.

Apple's Snow Leopard to sport Cocoa Finder and ImageBoot - AppleInsider

When it makes its debut, likely at WWDC 2009, Snow Leopard will also introduce a new, third option for disc image-based installation called ImageBoot. Based on Apple's existing NetBoot technology, which allows Macs to boot from a remote disk over the network, ImageBoot will allow users to set up any number of disk images on a secondary partition or external drive, and then selectively boot their system from any one of those disk images at startup.

This new feature will allow users to set up a series of test environments or uniquely configured Mac OS X systems, store the bootable systems as discrete disk images, and subsequently store multiple boot targets on the same disk or partition. Currently, only one bootable Mac OS X installation can be stored on a given disk partition.

With ImageBoot, multiple NetBoot sets can be maintained locally on the same storage partition, and the user can select any one of the disk images available to boot from without having to restore or mount the disk image first. The result is a system that works similar to virtualization software such as Parallels, which can create disk images for different PC operating systems and selectively boot from any of them. The difference is that Mac OS X isn't booting up in a virtual environment; it actually boots a fully native Mac OS X system.

 

[justit]

Well, clearly the MBAir isn't for you and such but ...

Exactly.

It's not for me because ... I'm making a suggestion to make installation faster/better? I guess you won't be needing snow leapard

MBA install disks will not install from a USB with images. I've tried. I wasn't referring to a bootable USB disk, you may not have read the post entirely.