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#126 antonino61

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 11:01 AM

so, in my case, what shall I do to make the best possible use of it?



#127 wimb

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 11:37 AM

so, in my case, what shall I do to make the best possible use of it?

 

It is only a tool to make File Lists that can give insight in what files are referring to data having a Single Hardlink.

Such files cannot be removed without consequences .....

 

You might use Dir_List to make File List  and use notepad++  with  Plugins > Compare File Lists

and can conclude what is the difference in File Content as a result of your operations ....

 

Also you can determine in this way what is really the essential core of needed files.



#128 antonino61

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 01:15 PM

thanx, wimb, I will do it as soon as I can.



#129 antonino61

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 07:54 PM

Dear Wimb,

I ran Hard_Link_List_x64.exe and pointed it to I:\windows\winsxs. here are the files it yielded:Attached File  Multi_Hard_Link_List_2020-21-07.txt   1.87KB   4 downloads

Attached Files



#130 wimb

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 08:20 PM

Thanks for the lists.

I will analyse tomorrow and make comparison with my WinSxS results.

 

Can you use Dir_List_x64.exe and Select your drive I: to make File_List_I.txt and Folder_List_I.txt ?



#131 antonino61

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 08:33 PM

ok, in a bit.



#132 antonino61

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Posted 21 July 2020 - 08:39 PM

here u go:

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#133 cdob

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 04:47 AM

A lot of single link files are about 'Enabling or disabling Windows features.'
 
About multi linked files:
there are multi linked files within WinSxs only, all hardlinks refers to WinSxS subfolder
And there are multi linked files at WinSxs and other folders, e.g. system32
If the file is at the (RAM) disk, then the second link at WinSxS requires tiny space.
 
 
 
I wonder about a adjusted approach:
 
Use a small RAM disk at daily usage. If you need full features once in a while, then symlink the missing folders.
The symlinked folders are lost at next boot, this is good.
This is a idea, not tested.
 
Example:
mklink.exe /J C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-twinui-appcore_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.264_none_6faa5e93b9b475c3 d:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-twinui-appcore_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.264_none_6faa5e93b9b475c3
 
Or mount the image offline, and symlink the folders. 
Changes are permanent that way.
 
 
Random idea: 
I prefer single read/write access to single files. Changes are not simple inside a WIM image.
A base Windows at NTFS compact mode, symlinks to seldom used directories. 
NTFS compact mode requires more space than Wim image, this is a drawback.
There are different hardware, e.g.: 4 GiB, 8 GiB,  16 GiB, 32 GiB, .. RAM 
There are different solutions for different hardware and user behaviour.


#134 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 05:40 AM

here u go:

 

Your File_List_I_WinSxS.txt has 25.304 lines wheras mine after using cdob batch has only 57 lines of files in WinSxS folder (see Attachment)

So in any case there are a lot of files about 25.000 in your case that can be removed while keeping the system bootable .....(most of the Manifest folder)

 

Attached File  WinSxS_List.zip   2.47KB   2 downloads

 

Thanks for the File_List_I_WinSxS.txt , but that is not the list that I asked for.  :(

You Selected the I:\Windows\WinSxS folder and I asked you to Select drive I: to get a list of the whole Installation.

 

What is the Used Size of Drive I: as seen in Properties ?   And what is the WIM Size of this installation ?

Is this the very minimum installation that you have made by removal of all the fluff ?

 

In any case can you give Total File_List of your very minimal installation that is working and booting still OK ?

 

Again: Can you use Dir_List_x64.exe and Select your drive I: to make File_List_I.txt and Folder_List_I.txt ?

 

 



#135 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 06:09 AM

 

A lot of single link files are about 'Enabling or disabling Windows features.'
 
About multi linked files:
there are multi linked files within WinSxs only, all hardlinks refers to WinSxS subfolder
And there are multi linked files at WinSxs and other folders, e.g. system32
If the file is at the (RAM) disk, then the second link at WinSxS requires tiny space.
 

 

Thanks for the interesting info with nice hardlink example.



#136 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 11:04 AM

one thing at a time, pls, hahahah

 

here is my new 7z containing everything as wimb asked

 

now I will deal with all other posts.

 

Attached Files



#137 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 11:10 AM

 

A lot of single link files are about 'Enabling or disabling Windows features.'
 
About multi linked files:
there are multi linked files within WinSxs only, all hardlinks refers to WinSxS subfolder
And there are multi linked files at WinSxs and other folders, e.g. system32
If the file is at the (RAM) disk, then the second link at WinSxS requires tiny space.
 
I use my vhd's at times as filedisks, at other times as ramdisks.
 
 
Use a small RAM disk at daily usage. If you need full features once in a while, then symlink the missing folders.
The symlinked folders are lost at next boot, this is good.
This is a idea, not tested.
 
my vhd's are normally 3/4gb (full disks) or 2.5gb wim + 100mb gz
 
Example:
mklink.exe /J C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-twinui-appcore_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.264_none_6faa5e93b9b475c3 d:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-twinui-appcore_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.264_none_6faa5e93b9b475c3
 
Or mount the image offline, and symlink the folders. 
Changes are permanent that way.
 
Which folders shall I symlink?
 
Random idea: 
I prefer single read/write access to single files. Changes are not simple inside a WIM image.
A base Windows at NTFS compact mode, symlinks to seldom used directories. 
NTFS compact mode requires more space than Wim image, this is a drawback.
There are different hardware, e.g.: 4 GiB, 8 GiB,  16 GiB, 32 GiB, .. RAM 
There are different solutions for different hardware and user behaviour.
 
Pls brief me any further, I appreciate ur patience in advance and over and beyond.

 



#138 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 11:21 AM

here is my new 7z containing everything as wimb asked

 

 

Ok, thanks for the Lists.

 

Questions that I still have:

What is the Used Size of Drive I: as seen in Properties ?   And what is the WIM Size of this installation ?

Is this the very minimum installation that you have made by removal of all the fluff ?



#139 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 11:54 AM

full vhd size 5gb (lzx)

wim size 3gb (lzx)

 

yes it is, no fluff



#140 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 12:03 PM

full vhd size 5gb (lzx)

wim size 3gb (lzx)

 

yes it is, no fluff

 

What is the Used Size of Drive I: as seen in Properties ?

 

Something like this:

 

 

It is impressive, but how do you make such installation ?

Can you give some details Or better a detailed instruction so that I can reproduce it ?

Is there a lot of data located outside WIM and also outside VHD e.g. located on SSD ?



#141 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 12:18 PM

thanx, wimb, too good of u, i believe it can be even more impressive with a little more effort on u guys' part.

full vhd 3755 (3,49gb)

combo vhd (645mb) + wim (u already know)

 

do u also want the figures concerning another vhd that I use?



#142 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 12:31 PM

thanx, wimb, too good of u, i believe it can be even more impressive with a little more effort on u guys' part.

full vhd 3755 (3,49gb)

combo vhd (645mb) + wim (u already know)

 

do u also want the figures concerning another vhd that I use?

 

Yes please.

 

Do you have data of  Program Or Other folders located outside VHD + WIM ?



#143 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 12:38 PM

no, all inside vhd, apart from etl files which are junctioned to a ramdisk containing temps

 

for the other vhd, in a bit.



#144 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 01:42 PM

ok, wimb, here is all I got concerning the other vhd. 

 

full vhd 4176 (3,88gb)

combo vhd (215 (205mb) used space) + wim (3,39gb)

 

I am trying to upload the 7z concerning this install, but the clear selection animation seems to constantly be going round in circles.

 

 

sorry about an earlier post stating the size of the vhd as being 650 or something: the used space of the combo vhd in the previous install is 193 (184mb); all the rest concerning the previous install is ok. btw, there seems to be a noticeable difference between the combo obtained while being in ram (as a result of winramboot) and the combo obtained while being in normal deployment (as filedisk). to make myself understood, one thing is to have booted from x as FILEDISK and make a wimboot combo of y, another is to have booted from x as RAMDISK and make a wimboot combo of y, at least in terms of combo vhd sizes.

 

 

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#145 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 01:45 PM

well, I am glad I have uploaded it in the end.

as for instructions on how to achieve these small sizes, I have been posting procedures for a year or so now, they are both here and in other posts, with a few ppl chuckling at how they were blatantly ignored by the community. I don't mind it, let us say I am used to it, but if u like, would u pls ask me specific questions I will be ready to answer each of them, as I believe it is much more viable that way. for a start, I can tell u I have followed the advice of most of you, so I uninstalled whatever did not matter to me (almost all), and then I installed directx, runtimes (hopefully from 2005 to 2019), and relied on portable apps for the rest of the software. as a weekly cleaning routine, I use portables such as glary utilities, registry1staid, wintools, wise365, jv16powertools, dism++ offline twice consecutively, autoruns, and ur software. oh, before I forget, I have the following system directories and/or subdirectories junctioned to z: (ramdisk): \windows\system32\catroot2, \windows\system32\sru, all internet explorer folders (I love maxthon), \windows\system32\logfiles, all logs folders, \windows\system32\sleepstudy, all softwaredistribution folders (there's only 2 of them), temp, \windows\system32\WDI, \windows\system32\winevt, wtpdiag.etl, and transcodedwallpaper.

Well, I hope I have been of help and look forward to aswering any of your questions, or anybody's, for that matter.


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#146 wimb

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 02:17 PM

well, I am glad I have uploaded it in the end.

as for instructions on how to achieve these small sizes, I have been posting procedures for a year or so now, they are both here and in other posts, with a few ppl chuckling at how they were blatantly ignored by the community. I don't mind it, let us say I am used to it, but if u like, would u pls ask me specific questions I will be ready to answer each of them, as I believe it is much more viable that way. for a start, I can tell u I have followed the advice of most of you, so I uninstalled whatever did not matter to me (almost all), and then I installed directx, runtimes (hopefully from 2005 to 2019), and relied on portable apps for the rest of the software. as a weekly cleaning routine, I use portables such as glary utilities, registry1staid, wintools, wise365, jv16powertools, dism++ offline twice consecutively, autoruns, and ur software. oh, before I forget, I have the following system directories and/or subdirectories junctioned to z: (ramdisk): \windows\system32\catroot2, \windows\system32\sru, all internet explorer folders (I love maxthon), \windows\system32\logfiles, all logs folders, \windows\system32\sleepstudy, all softwaredistribution folders (there's only 2 of them), temp, \windows\system32\WDI, \windows\system32\winevt, wtpdiag.etl, and transcodedwallpaper.

Well, I hope I have been of help and look forward to aswering any of your questions, or anybody's, for that matter.

 

Thanks a lot for the Dir_List.7z Attachment with the File_Lists for your other VHD.  :)

 

Thanks also for all the details given concerning your approach which is giving impressive small size of the Windows Installation as Full VHD or as VHD+WIM combo in WIMBOOT mode. :)

I will study first and if I have more questions then I will let you know. 



#147 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 02:23 PM

wimb, I am sure not all I have in windows or windows\system32 or windows\syswow64 is needed (btw, my list should also have included the \syswow64 versions of the subfolders in system32 I typed (only forgot to mention them, junctioned out to ram as well)). my idea of junctioning all that stuff out to ram came from wonko's suggestion that I compare vhd.vhd at first boot and at next boot with examdiff, and the resulting variations amount almost exclusively to *.etl files; so I searched for them and junctioned them or the directories containing them (if they did not contain anything else) out to ram. the initial principle was to keep vhd used space from growing. but all this was about 2 years ago; there are posts around, I am sure.

 

btw, I never had so little used space in vhd combos before the cdob initiative thereof, so I believe the effort is worhwhile. oh, another thing, I have this file-number-wise plethoric and used-space-wise unplethoric (only 20 megs at most) manifests subfolder because I do not know the file or couple of files I need to make some apps work (most of which concern directx and api's in general) back again. 


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#148 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 05:17 PM

@cdob 

can u pls exemplify the ideas above a little more indepthly? i have a regular ramdisk (z:\) shall I mount the vhd offline, move the seldom used directories to z:\ and junction them back to where they were in the first place on c:\?



#149 antonino61

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Posted 22 July 2020 - 05:35 PM

guess what! I tried moving \program files\common files\ to ram and junctioned back to its original place, it booted ok. let me see if anything goes wrong and i will tell u in a bit.

 

ps.: even \program files\modifiablewindowsapps\ can be moved to ram and junctioned back to its original place with apparently no hindrance to the functioning of the system, UNLESS PROVEN OTHERWISE.

 

Further successful attempts will be added here.

 

\program files\windows nt\ can be removed completely if u don't need the services inside.

 

keep doing like this with most folders one by one and make backups to resort to should anything go wrong.



#150 wimb

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Posted 23 July 2020 - 05:56 AM

Dir_List Update

 

- Added Dir_List_Help.txt

- Added Program h_path.cmd can be used in Admin command window with any Path as parameter for search of type of Hard_Link data in that Path

  e.g. P:\Windows\System32 as parameter to search in P:\Windows\System32 folder for Single Or Multi Hard_Link data
- better description like files in WinSxS that refer to single hardlink data  :rolleyes:

 

Download: Dir_List.zip contains program Hard_Link_List_x64.exe

 

More Info: http://reboot.pro/to...f-out/?p=215442

 




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