W2000 vs XP Prof

Danie
Danie
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Topic 195210

Will I gain by going from Windows 2000 to XP Prof? If so will I have to install as if new?

Danie

Gundolf Jahn
Gundolf Jahn
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W2000 vs XP Prof

Not concerning the Einstein@home project.

If you upgrade anyway:

  • * make a backup copy of your BOINC

data directory (the path is shown in the Messages tab after a reboot)
* install the new operating system
* restore the data directory
* install BOINC (the same version as before) and direct the installer to the restored directory.
Gruß,
Gundolf

Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Will I gain by going

Quote:
Will I gain by going from Windows 2000 to XP Prof?


Depends on what you mean by 'gain'. You may gain better security and more user convenience 'features' with a more modern version of Windows. You probably wont see any significant change in crunching speed. The more 'horsepower' is required to run the OS, the less is available to run the science application, so you could even see a tiny loss in performance if the OS had more bloat. If you are looking for faster crunching, changes like upgrading to a new generation processor and/or faster memory will have a much more dramatic effect on crunching speed than the OS itself. Processors based on Intel's netburst architecture have a real handicap as far as decent crunching speed for E@H is concerned. Modern Intel processors are dramatically better.

Quote:
If so will I have to install as if new?


I presume you are talking about reinstalling BOINC after upgrading your OS. If you are doing any sort of hardware or OS upgrade of your computer you can keep your current BOINC installation. The safest action is to uninstall BOINC (which just removes BOINC itself) and put the residual BOINC Data folder (with all your project related settings) on to a USB stick or a network share. When you finish hardware upgrades and/or reinstalling the OS, you simply put the BOINC data folder back where it was and reinstall BOINC 'over the top', making sure to tell the installer to use this folder. It should actually be able to find it automatically but just check it anyway. When finished, the new installation will pick up all previous settings and continue on from where it had previously left off. If there are tasks in progress, they will simply be recommenced, even if the OS had changed from Win2K to WinXP. However you couldn't quite do this if the change was more fundamental - like Windows -> Linux for example.

Cheers,
Gary.

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