when I read this earlier today I thought of very very long paths..
%SystemRoot%\inf;C:\DriverPack\D\C\A\1;C:\DriverPack\D\C\A\2;etcetera etcetera
and when I get back to this I see Jeff mentioned method 1.
Well, here is something for you.
C:\DriverPack\D\C\A\1;C:\DriverPack\D\C\A\2; is TWO folders weighing in at 44 characters for two folders..
I bet that with your method you still have a problem with path longer than 4096 characters, so why should I not tell you what I did a mont or so back..
Here goes.
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How can you have a
SUPER SHORT PATH FOR METHOD 1
_____________________________
1: Benefits;
a) You can stay well under 4096 path lenght with all main packs and several third party included.
b) Method 1 can be used to UPGRADE CDROMs.
c) A Disc built with Method 1 has a searchable driver repository. (the Soem$ folder )
d) The driver repository and path built in WINNT.SIF can be used in an ACRONIS image.
in your example, everything in C:\D\... so your path would look like
%SystemRoot%\inf;C:\D\C\A1;C:\D\C\A2;etcetera etcetera
which you can easily accomplish by a little edit and then search replace on ;D\ to ;C:\D\
(which, incidentally, still sees me under 3400)
2: Disadvantage
a) It will take you a couple hours to do this.
b) You cannot do KTD (but, surprisingly, KTD is not needed because the drivers were copied and path is referenced anyhow.)
- HOW -
Copy the DriverPacks and DriverPacks BASE to a project folder.
I extracted DriverPacks BASE 805 in the "special" project folder called SUPERshort.
In there, I created two subs for the SHORT3rdparty and SHORTmain
Then I extracted the DriverPacks and 3rd party in there.
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WLAN has well over two hundred folders, and has NO INI.
Copy the foldername, and make a new folder where you add SHORT (or S) after the version number.
make a D folder in there, and then make seventeen folders in the D folder.
wa, wb, wc, wd, we, etcetera.
You can perhaps use DUPEFINDER to see which folders contain duplicate filenames...
Move the files from the official WLAN into one of the 17, and take care.. You do not want to overwrite a single file.
When you are done, your fingers hurt, but because you moved files from 200 folders into 17 folders you have a MUCH shorter path.
Copy the DP_WLAN_xxxSHORT foldername to clipboard and 7zip the D folder in that supershort folder, giving it the name from clipboard.
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LAN is another one with a high number of folders.
This one has an INI.
Copy the foldername, and make a new folder where you add SHORT (or S) after the version number.
Make a D folder in there, then make an L folder, and then make eight folders in the D folder.
1, 2, 3, 4 etcetera
Move the NV3 folder and INI to the "short" pack. (because it gets referenced in INI)
Then move content of the other hundred thirty odd folders to one of the nine folders in there, WITHOUT OVERWRITING a single file.
let zip do its magic and get a coffee.
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Sound B has over a hundred folders, and only six are referenced in the INI.
You may think I will suggest you move the referenced folders and INI over to the short pack and then move files.
Well, it sure looks almost every folder has duplicate filenames in it.. (I see 178 dupes.)
I can tell you that getting this to 70 folders is NO fun at all..
I know D\S\CR8 is longer than D\SCR8
So, I changed the INI
[DriverPack]
platform = "wnt5_x86-32"
name = "Sound B"
; version 804
rootDir = "D"
( instead of "D\S" )
And wrote an S into the folder reference in INI
[CR8] became [SCR8]
I then used bulkrename, added an S before each foldername, and was going to move the lot to the shortpack.
hey.. it has 117 folders, so I would get 117 characters less..
But? NOTHING says you CANNOT move files.
So, I started by moving the edited INI and the six referenced folders to short, and then combined some folders..
When I was done, I had 70 folders left.
47 times (example) D\S12; was approx another 300 characters less.
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I knew I was under 4096 by now.. (by doing WLAN and LAN I had already shortened path a great deal)
I looked a third party, and saw path hogs.
I really mean path hogs.
I got the third party packs I use from over 2000 chars to a LOT less.
My total path with all the mains and the four third party I use is under 2300..
I applied the rootDir = "D" INI edit I used for sound B in LAN, Graphics A and B.
For the third party files the path looks like
D\3MoA;D\3MoB;D\3MoC; (monitors combined to less than five folders)
D\3MA;D\3MB;D\3MC; (modems combined into 31 short folders. From around 80 nested.)
D\3xA;D\3xAO; (Misc was combined into these two folders. From around 36 nested.)
hmmm.. chipsets is another special..
Chipsets will probably not have triplicated folders for intel in a next release.
(the content in those three intel folders is exactly same folks.)
If you are doing this for XP, you can pretty much put everything what says XP in the intel folder..
If you want to play it safe, keep the triplicated intel, and copy the rest to all three, but don't put folders what say 2k3 (for server) to an XP folder. If it says server, it goes to server.. some Nvidia and some Via have different catalog files for XP/2000/server.. and that's it.
"============================="
"Attention folks, heed this warning."
"You cannot do this to mass storage."
"============================="
Mass storage uses almost thousand characters in path, but you should not touch that.
It used to add over 1500..:)
There was a reason behind the change of folder structures we started months ago.
)