Patent ID: 7398524

Claim:
A method for processing a first storage medium for an end-user device, said method comprising: forming a panoplex dataset of soft assets, wherein the panoplex dataset includes: a plurality of installed soft assets, including a plurality of program soft assets that are installed, functional, and substantially ready-to-use with an operating system of the end-user device when the panoplex dataset is connected to the end-user device, gryph data that includes metadata required by the operating system to execute the plurality of program soft assets; separating the panoplex dataset into a plurality of portions, including: a first portion having at least some of the gryph data that includes at least some of the metadata, and a second portion having the panoplex dataset without at least some of the gryph data; writing on the first storage medium, before initial connection of the first storage medium to the end-user device, the second portion having the panoplex dataset without at least some of the gryph data without writing the first portion to the first storage medium; subsequent to said writing, connecting the first storage medium to the end-user device; obtaining selection data to distinguish a subset of the soft assets that are to be kept from other soft assets that are to be deleted; retrieving the first portion, which has at least some of the gryph data, from a location other than the first storage medium; and automatically modifying the first storage medium based on the selection data and on the retrieved first portion, wherein said modifying includes writing to the first storage medium a modified version of said at least some of the metadata included in the gryph data of the retrieved first portion, and making space available for storage of other data in place of said other soft assets that are to be deleted, and wherein the subset of the soft assets to be kept is available as installed, functional, and substantially ready-to-use.