I had Seagate, Maxtor & Western Digital over the years. My rating on these three: 1 = Seagate 2 = Maxtor 3 = Western Digital The WD caused daat loss when it suddenly stopped functioning. Maybe it was just bad luck, but I will not buy one again.
No Age fans on this forum? Age of Empire II Age of Mythology I can't wait for Age of Empire III (end of year). From screenshots and preview articles I have already decided that it will be my favorite in 2006!
It's been a while since I used it, but if I remeber correctly, you can do it with virtualdub. I think "direct stream copy" (video & audio) keep the size the same. Look for "append avi".
Look at W.A.I.T. Although it is used by a lot of UA members, you can easily use it on an apps-only CD. You can dump all your software on a CD/DVD and invoke W.A.I.T from the autorun file. In W.A.I.T you are able to select which programs to install. You can even create up to three pre-selection lists.
I haven't worked with WPI yet, and I haven't used xplode in quite a while, but a BIG plus point for W.A.I.T is it's config-file-generator. A GUI program that generates the settings. No need for tutorials and no big learning curve.