Bootable ISO - Create from Installation Files

Hi all,

Thanks SIW2 for this tutorial. I am very interested in getting this working, but haven't figured out how to translate this to the lenovo recovery scheme. There is a OS.okr file (One Key Recovery, which is a port of Power Recover by CyberLink), which is a zip file of the Win7 install, but all it has is the end result Windows folder structure. It seems all the installation is handled extrinsically by the OKR engine. I'm attaching a screen shot of the OKR source folder.

Thanks,
p.

From the look of it - you need to capture the parent folder as a wim file.

You will have to extract it first - 7-zip will probably do that.

Use something easy like Gimagex, select the Capture tab, browse to the extracted \OKRBackup\Factory\OS.okr\1 folder and capture it.

Select maximum compression and create wim file called install.wim

We can the create the necessary folder structure and a small bootable wim of some kind - (the recovery wim somewhere on your drive will do )

Then create an iso.

download zip GImageX


It's worth taking allok inside those folders in your screenie and see if you think everything is there.

Oem'ss sometimes have their own proprietary stored elsewhere , often in split wim format.

This is what Install.wim looks like:




Your.okr file might actually be a .wim already - you could try changing the extension to .wim and see if 7-zip recognizes it -if so- you already have that.

Becuase your directories are larger the oem software is likely already in there.

Sometimes the proprietary file is a .wim under a different name - unfortunately, oem's will sometimes change the headers - doesn't seem they have here because 7-zip is picking it up fine.

Is this making any sense so far?

Yes - thanks very much. It has to be in .wim format so the file can be processed correctly?

Those first directions made conceptual sense, but actually executing them probably would have been another matter.

I've now changed .okr to .wim, and 7 zip is reading it fine. I guess the next step is to see if vlite will process the file.

BTW, the original vlite link seems to have been hijacked. It's now found at vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool.

I'll get back with the vlite results. I'm thinking that if it works I would like to reduce the iso size, to get it on a dvd. Goodness knows there's a bunch of bloat that could be thrown out. But I don't want to introduce fatal installation errors. Is there a script that I could edit while doing the folder deletions?

I also am checking out an HP machine to see if working with it would be any easier. I've got a folder with maybe two dozen .wim files. The first one, named A1NAv6PrA1, has the Windows folder structure in it, so i guess that's it. It's also larger than your Win7 disk pic here.

Thanks,
p.

Yes, the other wim's on the HP are probabaly trial software and the like.

To make an iso for dvd ( or to put the files on a usb stick ), you need a bootable wim as well.

The bootable wim ( usually called boot.wim ) loads into memory and from there you run the installation program - which extracts the image from the install.wim onto your selected partition. It also creates the necessary boot critical files.

You will already have boot.wim somewhere about 165-170mb probabaly- it might be called something else.

You can always use winre.wim instead - you will find that in windows\system32 recovery folder - or on your Win7 partition in a hidden folder called Recovery. Have a look and let me know where it is.


You can use vlite for windows 7 - to remove components - usually stuff like parental controls and speech support if you don't ned them.

Getting rid of the oem bloatware is something else.

EDIT - From memory, vlite won't pick up just an install.wim -it expects the entire dvd structure - which you don't have.

Amazing gift you have for this stuff.

I found the recovery folder and the winRE.wim, at 164MB, in the Win7 installation.

I've switched to the HP machine, as it seems it might be easier to deal with. I'm able to browse the recovery partition using 7zip, with kudos to them.

The .wim I mentioned that seems to be the prime candidate only weighs about 100MB in .wim form. That couldn't be it, could it? I'm attaching a screen cap.

And if vlite won't make sense of all this, how does one proceed? That's where I thought this whole thing was going.

Thanks,
p.

Install.wim will be close to 3gb.

I would make the correct folder structure for an iso - into that you put your bootable.wim ( you can use winre.wim you found for that ) and your install.wim.

You would need to add an installer program into winre.wim.

I have a little app. somewhere I made a little while that will do the whole job for you - I just need to find it.

That would be great. I frankly don't know how to put this whole package together.