Install from Your Network

The following may seem counterintuitive, but here goes: Copying files from a hard drive elsewhere on a network is faster than copying files from a local CD-ROM player (even a 36x or 40x player). Why? Because hard disks are still as much as 100 times faster than CD-ROM drives .

Savvy network administrators create a set of directories on a network drive and install Windows Server 2003 across the network when they can. This tactic is fast, easy, and requires only that you load a CD once, no matter how many times you install from it. In fact, network installation is what makes the next topic namely, automated installations feasible .