Hello all, I am in the process of archiving some ISOs of Windows 7 and want them to be converted to an ESD for storage on an external storage server, Is there any way I can do that? As far as I know the esd decrypter is one way, (esd>ISO) only. Any help in this regard would be appreciated.
ESD is a Microsoft special Apps, AFAIK! For PC and Windows, the most used and even one of the best, is 7z as well as 7Zip. There is one tool which outperforms maybe all of the 'normal' tools, and that's from SmithMicro: StuffIt DeLuxe. That's a Cross-Platform Compression tools which works with most OS'es. It uses many different formats, while the standard is .sit and .sitx (for even higher compression). Details: Code: [FONT="]The most complete archiving solution. Compresses and decompresses in Mac, Windows, and Unix archive formats, and more types of files than any other solution. Also encodes/decodes Windows email encoding formats.[/FONT][FONT="]Compression formats supported: .sit, .sitx (for higher compression), .zip, .exe, .sea, .tar, .bin, .hqz, .gz (gzip), .bz2, .tgz, .lha, .rar, .arc, .pf , .uu, .uue, .cab, .yenc, and .z (also known as Unix Compress)[/FONT] [FONT="]Encoding/decoding formats (used in email) supported: Base64/MIME, UUencode (.UU), BinHex (.HQX), .LHA, MacBinary (.BIN), AppleSingle, AppleDouble[/FONT] [FONT="]Image, audio compression: Version 12 added the ability to compress cross-platform file formats that are already compressed, including MP3, PDF, Photoshop, TIFF, PNG, GIF, BMP. It increases compression of JPG files to 30 percent. StuffIt uses a different compression algorithm for each type of file to get optimized reduction in size. The compression is lossless, without degrading the image or sound quality. It can also re-compress zip archives: unzip an archive, the recompress using an optimized compressor for each type of file.[/FONT] [FONT="]Other features:[/FONT] Built-in archived backup to FTP, optical disk, or folder Joins segmented StuffIt files. StuffIt commands in Mac OS X contextual menu Creates self-extracting archives Windows .EXE archives on the Mac. Now creates .uu and .zip archives by adding or removing the UUencode (.uu) or Zip (.zip) suffix, those files will encode, compress or expand Create and expand Bzip (.bzip) files (common to the Unix) Can view JPEG thumbnails without decompressing If I would do what you try, I would go with StuffIt, but it's Payware and not free!
7zip is a good bet, but it can't outperform an esd compressed file (as esd is designed for ensuring highest compression rates for Microsoft OSes), the most it gets you is around 85-90 % compression ratio on Ultimate mode, I haven't tried the other software package that you mentioned, and it is not a freeware, If you have some info regarding it, Can you post the typical compression ratios?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but with this script. I can / should; 1. Extract the install.wim from the regular ISO. 2. Run convert.cmd 3. Script will output install.esd install.esd will be the only file needed to restore it back to an ISO (if needed) with esd decrypter. and; I can safely discard my original ISO? Thanks
Abbodi1406's wim<>esd is for install.esd/wim not for iso>esd. Iso to esd you have to do manually by exporting the indexes install/boot.wim index 1 and 2 and another index (there is a thread about doing this from about one year ago where someone asked it and murphy78 answered it) to esd. The best way to archive iso's is svf(/sfx), 1 source iso and all others are svf(/sfx) patches.
To put it simple: there isn't any apps for to convert ISO to ESD! The ESD is a special MS Apps, NO 3.party available. And the use is quite limited! Just to mention, the compression ratio varies, depend on type and size of the used files. That said, the compression ratio will never be equal, and any given amount will be simple not true!
If someone can hand me the wimlib info command to view the content of the esd file (not install.esd but downloaded esd) it will be cleared up, i'm searching my inbox for abbodi1406's pm containing it.
Not any other, only windows iso you can already save space by converting install.wim to install.esd converting the whole iso also save it more, but you would need to convert it back to iso in order to be able use it normally
Thanks for the answer. My question were just rhetoric, for to get to know the limits! I didn't need to do that 'work' for my own for to save space, that I've more than enough! It just was to clear what could be done because the OP and others talked about!
I've tested it with "en_windows_10_enterprise_2016_ltsb_x86_dvd_9060010.esd". It resulted in a 800MB smaller esd (option 1) but when reconverting to iso it got this filename: "14393.0.160715-1616.RS1_RELEASE_CLIENTENTERPRISES_VOL_X86FRE_EN-US.ISO". EDIT: i found out which "index" i forgot, it's the empty iso. If i remember correctly: 1.windows setupmedia 2.boot.wim #1 3.boot.wim #2 4.install.wim #xx
Good job abbodi, however, the statement echoed in the CMD file (below), gives the impression that the conversion process should work if there are spaces in the file name or path: echo ============================================================ echo Enter / Paste the complete path to the ISO file echo ^(without quotes marks "" even if the path contains spaces^) echo ============================================================ But the conversion process terminates if the path or the file name has spaces. Ensure all spaces are removed or replaced with underscores or other (legal) characters.