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.wim disk format as Archival Purposes what do you think??

#1 User is offline   gendouhydeist 

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Posted 19 March 2010 - 05:20 PM

well what I did is that I've put all my adobe installers onto wim from 6.70GB to 3.39GB at maximum compression. I really like how wim works, instead of mounting it an ISO to Virtual Drive, why not just mount it on a folder.. also wim format are modifiable when mounted.. This of archive has a lot of advantages, having able to compress, mount, modify and fast at reading files... and that's why for me its a must have features for an archive.

The only disadvantage is compressing a 6.70GB 52,000 Files takes about 40 minutes on Athlon 64 X2 and 1GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM and also I haven't test it yet on XP since it needs wimfltr in order to work..


#2 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 20 March 2010 - 03:51 AM

View Postgendouhydeist, on 19 March 2010 - 05:20 PM, said:

The only disadvantage is compressing a 6.70GB 52,000 Files takes about 40 minutes on Athlon 64 X2 and 1GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM and also I haven't test it yet on XP since it needs wimfltr in order to work..

Just in case:


jaclaz

#3 User is offline   gendouhydeist 

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Posted 20 March 2010 - 09:28 AM

I can't download your batch files for some reasons...

here's what it said
Sorry, some required files are missing, if you intended to view a topic, it's possible that it's been moved or deleted. Please go back and try again.


But I've never knew it exist thanks for the info man...

#4 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 20 March 2010 - 10:32 AM

Yep, there are some problems on boot-land Board attachments right now.

Get Wimcaptex.exe from here:
http://nativeex.boot...x/WimCaptEx.htm

I am attaching the small batches.

jaclaz

Attached File(s)



#5 User is offline   gendouhydeist 

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Posted 20 March 2010 - 12:08 PM

all i need to do is to put the 3 required files right??? thats it... everything will do by the batch file

#6 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 20 March 2010 - 01:32 PM

View Postgendouhydeist, on 20 March 2010 - 12:08 PM, said:

all i need to do is to put the 3 required files right??? thats it... everything will do by the batch file


At least they should. ;)

Of course they are to be used in a logical order:
  • first you install the drivers (install.inf or w_install.cmd)
  • second you create/mount the .wim (w_create.cmd/w_mount.cmd)
  • third when you have finished with the .wim you unmount it (w_unmount.cmd)
  • fourth, optionally, you uninstall the drivers (w_uninstall.cmd)


As stated there, there is no help, you'll have to do some experiments, but if you run the batches without parameters, a minimal "syntax" is given, example:
http://www.boot-land...opic=9658&st=42

#7 User is offline   gendouhydeist 

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Posted 21 March 2010 - 01:39 PM

ok man... gonna try this later on, thx for this awesome batch

#8 User is offline   Tripredacus 

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Posted 22 March 2010 - 08:33 AM

I believe the earlier WIM related whitepapers spoke of using this format for archival purposes. Somehow now people only use it for Windows! Its a great system because of how it indexes files. Its basically an incremental zip file.

Of course you don't have any version control, and easy to replace a file by accident. Limited features provided by Imagex or DISM, I wonder if there are any tools from before Microsoft took it over?

#9 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 22 March 2010 - 08:47 AM

View PostTripredacus, on 22 March 2010 - 08:33 AM, said:

Of course you don't have any version control, and easy to replace a file by accident. Limited features provided by Imagex or DISM, I wonder if there are any tools from before Microsoft took it over?

What do you mean "before MS took it over"? :unsure:

Some research was done at the time of this project (now abandoned):
http://www.boot-land...wtopic=5308&hl=

jaclaz

#10 User is offline   Tripredacus 

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Posted 22 March 2010 - 03:57 PM

View Postjaclaz, on 22 March 2010 - 08:47 AM, said:

View PostTripredacus, on 22 March 2010 - 08:33 AM, said:

Of course you don't have any version control, and easy to replace a file by accident. Limited features provided by Imagex or DISM, I wonder if there are any tools from before Microsoft took it over?

What do you mean "before MS took it over"? :unsure:

Some research was done at the time of this project (now abandoned):
http://www.boot-land...wtopic=5308&hl=

jaclaz


I remember finding a draft about the WIM format awhile back and it wasn't a Microsoft document. I'll try searching for it tomorrow, I might still have it.

#11 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 04:02 AM

View PostTripredacus, on 22 March 2010 - 03:57 PM, said:

I remember finding a draft about the WIM format awhile back and it wasn't a Microsoft document. I'll try searching for it tomorrow, I might still have it.

It would be a very good finding, even small pieces are important to put the puzzle together. :)

jaclaz

#12 User is offline   maxXPsoft 

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 06:05 AM

Read something about that wim some time ago before I seen it in MS stuff but too many projects since.

Jaclaz
So it is alright to use these WimCaptEx say for instance along with my application? I been looking over there at Boot land to see if there are any restrictions. I'd like to test them.

#13 User is offline   jaclaz 

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 06:13 AM

View PostmaxXPsoft, on 23 March 2010 - 06:05 AM, said:

Read something about that wim some time ago before I seen it in MS stuff but too many projects since.

Not exactly useful, but thanks anyway.

View PostmaxXPsoft, on 23 March 2010 - 06:05 AM, said:

Jaclaz
So it is alright to use these WimCaptEx say for instance along with my application? I been looking over there at Boot land to see if there are any restrictions. I'd like to test them.

You want to test the restrictions? :w00t: ;)

AFAIK there are none, but PMing Peter (psc) and ask him directly, or better post in the related thread:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=9658
won't make any harm.
If you want to copy/use/modify/extract info/peruse anything from the small batches or .inf, you are of course welcome. :)

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 23 March 2010 - 06:16 AM


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