This is NOT cool...

[Daemonforce]

I have created a really kickass multiboot DVD that contains:

Windows NT 4.00 Server +SP1

Windows 2000 Professional +SP4

Windows 2000 Advanced Server +SP4

Windows XP Embedded +SP2 (Generic C-i486+S image)

Windows XP Professional +SP2

Windows XP Media Center Edition +SP2

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition +SP2

Windows Server 2003 +SP1

(Flip cover to Windows XP 64-Bit Edition)

With some combination up to 5 kinds of deployment options along with some floppy tools to be used with diskemu and the Windows XP OPK, this is already too large and I'm not finished. It's clear to me that I'll have to put the 64-Bit builds and linux compilations on hold until I can figure out what needs to be cut out. The first disc I created took about 10 minutes to create on a DVD+R using Nero and it failed after a 55MB overburn!

............................

I should NOT have to do that. EVER!

So far everything works except the floppy images. I have not optimized this compilation with any methods I am currently aware of. In fact, I believe I'm losing upwards of 90MB by giving each attendance setting its own bootsector and startup directory to point to. My effort has currently found itself as a massive 36-in-1 powered by CD Shell. The usages are for test and mass deployment in corporate and disaster situations(it's that **** awesome). I would like to know what your ideas are as to what I should add and what needs to go right now. I was looking around in the NT 4 directory and removed about 200MB of garbage that NT4 will never use(Alpha and PPC stuff). I'm considering dropping NT4 and the 2000 series entirely because NT4 has been a huge problem with the admins and 2000 is a horrible network problem under loose security. I'm starting to think I'll never see XP Media Center in a corporate environment so I'm thinking of removing that too. I don't see many places that have a presentation computer anymore. While there are no license problems associated with these Windows flavors, they're just becoming a burden to the rest of my compilation. =/ THEN I need to continue working on WinPE with things such as every single storage driver in existence.

I'm sitting here also asking myself how I'm going to add things like:

**** Small Linux 2.3RC1

FreeNAS 0.6

IP Cop 1.4.10

P.H.L.A.K. 0.3

R.I.P. Linux

Slax Linux 5.0.7B

I considered putting Knoppix 3.9 on here but after seeing how horribly slow it runs from a DVD: bad idea. I'm also new to this form of media and have been using vmware this whole time for testing. DSL is so much better when I compare it to the fully blown Knoppix. If anything, I would love to be able to add it. As far as I'm concerned, Windows is easy to mess with because the design is so incredibly simple. Windows Server 2003 was my only problem and I suspect I'll have the same problems with a Windows released with a 64-Bit counterpart or that boots with Arnes Boot Record. Linux is something I have yet to commonly mess with and I already see conflicts if I were to add said builds.

What should I remove and how can I add these linux builds to my compilation while keeping the rest of my disc happy?

[Albuquerque]

The most obvious thing is all the "replicated" files between all your flavors of XP and your two flavors of 2000. There are several ISO-creation packages out there that will single-store duplicate files and then use file pointers to "replicate" them to all the places they need to be. Thus, your four flavors of XP only need one physical copy of Shell32.dll and thus saving you ~24mb just for that single file.

Other things you could do might include using UPX to compress various executable and DLL files -- sometimes by more than 50% each. I use UPX on my PE implementation for various files to make the overall image smaller.

At worst, you could just use a DL-DVDR

[Daemonforce]

The most obvious thing is all the "replicated" files between all your flavors of XP and your two flavors of 2000.

More than that, and...That's what's bothering me. There should be a way to defeat this.

There are several ISO-creation packages out there that will single-store duplicate files and then use file pointers to "replicate" them to all the places they need to be. Thus, your four flavors of XP only need one physical copy of Shell32.dll and thus saving you ~24mb just for that single file.

Sounds like I can compress the 4.42GB package down to maybe 2.4GB. This is used for ISO creation, but what will this do about the actual physical media?

At worst, you could just use a DL-DVDR

Yeah...I'm really not so sure about going that route. My burner doesn't support dual layer.

[Daemonforce]

Update: I finally slimmed the disc down to where it's completely usable again. How would I go about making a linux multiboot? I want to start with DSL.