method 3

Hi, welcome to DriverPacks.

I once made a set with all DriverPacks on it and worked on the content of the DriverPacks to get a super short path. One can indeed move files into folders that have no file in there with same name.. .
I must tell you that a dp's INI has to point to the folder you merged files into, so that is some extra work.
It took me some hours to get it right, but I had all packs and a path way under 4096.
The result worked.

Why did we not use it at DriverPacks site? Maintaining the packs would have become hyll for the teams.
Because drivers were thrown in several big folders, it made it hard for the guy who has to update a driver. Where is it? Which files had it? (a driver update may have different named files, and then you'd have remnants of the old in the folder.)

So I had a very useful disc, M1 uses windows setup, so it can be used to repair a broken windows..
I think I still have that DVD and CDR with the supershort M1 path, but I did not see how the team could do the maintenance of the DriverPacks on such a layout.

what I am saying is that it can be done.
There are a few caveats. You have to carefully study what is done in The INI in some driverpacks, since split packs sometimes relied on files in another pack.

if you search the fora here,you may find over a year old posts about what I did.
Best of luck.

Last edited by Jaak (2009-07-19 00:05:58)

OK! Thank you for the great explanation, Jaak. Btw, i have the same name irl as your nickname here. I understand the very big maintenance problem, but i have a new thought/proposal for it. The packs can be exactly the way they are. But...during the integration of packs could be a script, that has the capability to "explode" the folder stucture the way you described. I dont mean to put the folders of all driverpacks into one root folder, if possible, only the folders of the current pack. I´m working on the script right now.

I´m very sorry, if you think so, Overflow. I just try to solve problems, why it wont work. If there´s absolutely no reasonable and not-bone-breaking way, how the problem can be solved, then i agree with you.

hmmm, the $OEM folder still had 347 subs.. 
Your idea about scripting the unzip process could become a fruitless effort.
You see, those INI have exceptions written in them for good reason, and how are you going to handle that?

I see ... Yes, that experiment can get pretty nasty setbacks or how should i say that...

Yes, thats right. The main "symbol-eater" is of course WLAN, but its highly reccomended to laptops for example.

I think, i should explain a little, why did i join to discuss the matter. I´m trying to develop a windows install server, so people can boot over the LAN and install windows x86 with their own OEM license codes and optional software. Thats not driverpacks matter of course. But...if i could get the install script bundle the needed driverpacks files, unpack them and install only needed drivers. Thats the case here.

I need to integrate mass-storage text-mode and LAN anyways, so the install script is able to connect to the server to download the needed packs etc. For that we could open another topic.

Yeah, i know that i´m not smart on this, but if you cant question the right questions, then how will the search help you? I´m very sorry. I really didnt mean to insult anyone´s intelligence or anything like that. You know there´s such expression - "a fool can ask more than ten geniuses can answer". So please dont be mad at me, trying to get smarter.