Patent ID: 7461095

Claim:
A method of creating an image, from a combined software image, of a data structure of software on a destination device from a server store, said method comprising: providing the combined software image including a first software image and a second software image, said combined software image including one copy of common file data common to both the first software image and the second software image, said combined software image including descriptive data of the first software image comprising: a first metadata of the first software image, said first metadata identifying a location of first file data of only the first software image and identifying a location of the common file data, said first metadata pointing to a first offset table, said first offset table including an offset of the location of the first file data on the combined software image, said first offset table including a unique identification, location, size, any flags relating to the first software image; and including descriptive data of the second software image comprising: a second metadata of the second software image, said second metadata identifying a location of second file data of only the second image and identifying a location of the common file data, said second metadata pointing to a second offset table, said second offset table including an offset of the location of the second file data on the combined software image, said second offset table including a unique identification, location, size, any flags relating to the second software image; creating a first image by copying an image of the descriptive data of the first software image from the combined software image to a first destination device; wherein creating the first image includes copying an image of the first file data of the first software image from the combined software image to the first destination device as a function of the descriptive data of the first software image; creating a second image by copying an image of descriptive data of the second software image from the combined software image to a second destination device, said descriptive data identifying a location of file data of the second software image in the combined software image; and wherein creating the second image includes copying an image of the second file data of only the second software image from the combined software image to the second destination device as a function of the descriptive data of the second software image.