[plug] [-: OT: On Topic :-] Nifty idea for dual booters

Brad Campbell brad at seme.com.au
Tue Aug 20 17:05:40 WST 2002


Leon Brooks wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 20 Aug 2002 16:10, Brad Campbell wrote:
> > The 9x's compress better because you can Zero the unused space on the
> > drive before you re-compress.
> 
> Try zeroing the partition before you install the first time.
> 
>     dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda2

I do that as a matter of course anyway.. :p)

> Get Windows to do a Quick format rather than a thorough one. If you're testing
> XP on a VFAT partition (or trust NTFS) you could use SpeeDisk user a
> different version of Windows or just make an immeanse file full of 0 to fill
> up the remaining space, either with a small 'doze program or dd under Linux:
> 
>     mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 win
>     dd if=/dev/zero of=win/fullof.0
>     rm -f win/fullof.0
>     umount win
>     dd if=/dev/hda2 | gzip > winxp.partition.gz
> 
> Not perfect, but a decided improvement on no zeroing.

Thou art indeed a guru Leon.. Would never have thought of it.
Brilliant.. Off to try it now.
<Clickety Click>
Pre Zeroed file size is 426182823
AZ file size is         358329375

Not bad given there is 218mb free on the drive..

Oh yeah, you need a big shoehorn and a liberal application of
KY Gel to fit XP into a Gig.. Frigging Bloatware.
Can't wait for Shane Brooks to finish XP Lite.
98 Lite is Wizzo :p)

-- 
Brad....
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