How to? Download TCMD only once to update several computers

[Steve Fabian]

I still have measured internet service. Downloading the same updater (installer) for multiple machines separately for each licensed machine is a waste of money. What is the approved procedure to download a specific combination of version, build, and memory bus width only once for each update cycle? Also, is there a way to validate download accuracy without attempting to install?

 

[rconn]

Download the installer by clicking on the link on the web site.
Copy it to the machine you want to install to.
Install it.

The installer has a built-in CRC check; it won't install if the download is corrupt.

 

[Steve Fabian]

Download the installer by clicking on the link on the web site.
Copy it to the machine you want to install to.
Install it.

The installer has a built-in CRC check; it won't install if the download is corrupt.

Unfortunately that means that if I take my WinXP32 laptop to a better internet connection, I won't know whether or not my downloads of 64b TCMD are going to be usable until I get home. That's why I liked it when the tcmdx64update.aiu file contained the size and MD5 information for the associated 64b intaller - I could validate the download on a system incapable of executing the installer. I know - I never before mentioned this possibility, it is relatively recent.

I do know the approximate sizes of the installers, so grossly smaller is known to be a defective download. That happens frquesntly with my home ISP. For example, 2048 bytes...

 

[keithg1964]

Do you normally have problems with corrupt downloads? I don't recall EVER having one, and that goes back to the days of 1200 baud modems.

 

[Steve Fabian]

Yes, I do. Quite often a single TCMD installer file's download takes a considerable time, yet it ends with only 2048 bytes, an obvious failure. Sometimes it is in the correct size range of 18..21 MB, but not always correct. That's why I would appreciate if the .AIU files correctly reported a size and hash code. I have two identical downloads for a specific build, which installed correctly, but mismatched the relevant .AIU information. I usually do my downloads of both the 32b and 64b versions on the 32b machine (I have many old utilities which work, or at least limp, on XP, but won't even start on Win7), where I cannot run the 64b installer for it to perform a self-check

I attempted downloading the version of WinXP MS makes available as an alternate (dual booting) OS for Win7, a file about 490MB. Once it stopped at 480MB; many times between 100..200MB. By "stopped" I mean that the TCC COPY command did not exit, but the disk free space was no longer changing. I did it on my Win7/64 machine, because MS requires downloading only to the target machine. When COPY stopped allocating space to the download, IIRC I had to kill its TCC instance... These were HTTP downloads. My ISP is T-Mobile, using a "broadband" device (speed up to 6Mb/s - not MB/s! - for download, a fraction of Comcast cable); connection to computers is via WiFi, at 54Mb/s peak.