• deadbug
  • DriverPacks newbie
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  • Registered: 2009-01-10
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Does DriverPacks patch any files?

I'm looking at cutting down on the amount of disk space consumed by my various AIO-DVDs and also (hopefully) speeding up it's generation slightly.

It seems that one way of achieving this might be to use hardlinks. The idea would be to have a source (say \SRC\XP\SP3). Rather than copying that to \AIO\XP\SP3 and applying DriverPacks, I would create a bunch of hardlinks in \AIO\XP\SP3 back to \SRC\XP\SP3. This will obviously save space and should be quicker too since no data needs to be copied.

This scheme will fall apart if the tools that I then use to process \AIO\XP\SP3 patch or rewrite files in situ rather than removing them and replacing them, since the hardlinks would then mean that \SRC\XP\SP3 would be altered too.

I cannot see DriverPacks altering any files (except WINNT.SIF) but that might just be a lucky coincidence with my setup. Or I might simply have missed something.

So does DriverPacks currently rewrite any files?

Thanks

-- deadbug

  • cdob
  • DriverPacks Guru
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  • Registered: 2006-08-13
  • Posts: 270

Re: Does DriverPacks patch any files?

Question may relate to http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=& … p;p=832507

Base does rename txtsetup.sif to txtsetup.org. A new file txtsetup.sif file is created.
Base does rename a existing winnt.sif to winnt.org. A new file winnt.sif file is created.

Search for *.org. There are more files renamed.

Approach is hard link friendly.


deadbug wrote:

So does DriverPacks currently rewrite any files?

I don't know about editing existing files.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
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  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: Does DriverPacks patch any files?

cdob is correct searchin for .org filse will lead you to any base changes.

in most situations you can let your ISO creator do this for you... they can optimize multiple links to a singe file in the TOC and only burn the file once to the media (ISO) i cant remember teh name of this optomization technique off the top of my head sorry...

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  • deadbug
  • DriverPacks newbie
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  • Registered: 2009-01-10
  • Posts: 7

Re: Does DriverPacks patch any files?

@cdob:

"Approach is hard link friendly."

Thanks. Yes, this is all stemming from the topic over at MSFN.

@OverFlow:

"in most situations you can let your ISO creator do this for you"

True. I use CDIMAGE which does do this (which is just as well, otherwise it would be a 12GB DVD!).

But if I use hardlinks to avoid copies in some places it looks like it speeds things up.

My current workflow for XP Pro is something like:

1. Have a source SP3 directory available
2. Apply RyanVM to SP3 to produce SP3
3. Apply WMP11 (via boooggy) and IE7 (via nLite) to SPR
4. Apply DriverPacks to SPR to produce SPD.

Step (1) involves building SP3 in my DVD from a stable SP3 in a source tree and
using hardlinks shaves a few minutes off.

In step (2) I get RyanVM's integrator to do the heavy lifting from SP3 to SPR - but the slow
part here is the processing and compression etc. No hardlinks involved.

Step (3) only touches SPR (which is not hardlinked).

Step (4) needs an SPD to start with, and using hardlinks again shaves a few minutes
(and now appears to be safe to do).

I also need to build boot folders for SP3, SPR and SPD (I want all of them on the
DVD) and hardlinks should help here too.

So it looks like I'm good to go!

Many thanks both of you for your input.

-- deadbug

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
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  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: Does DriverPacks patch any files?

Our thanks to you for sharing with us here at DriverPacks! big_smile

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