Extremely Large CAB Files

[Smorpheus]

AI seems to be having trouble generating CAB's for a multi-volume DVD Installer. My source is aproximately 15GB worth of data that needs to be transferred, but when I put 4400 Megabytes into the Volumes dialogue, it generates 440MB volumes instead. Is there anyway to generate the large Cabs I need for AI?

Thanks!

[UdreaMihai]

Hello Smorpheus,

Sorry but the CAB API is not able to operate on such files. You could try leaving the files unpacked outside of the MSI.

Best,
Mihai.

[Dan]

Hi,

Windows Installer has its limitations when it comes to managing large file installation. We’ll explore the available options for building installers with very large resources.

Before diving into, let’s summarize the current MSI limitations. The MSI utilizes CAB (Cabinet) files as storage containers for the files it includes.

• Cab Maximum File Size: The maximum size of a CAB file is 2 GB. This limitation is imposed by the CAB file format itself.
• Installer size: The MSI with resources inside cannot exceed 2 GB and EXE with resources inside cannot exceed 4GB. This is a Windows limitation.

Here's the Authoring Installer for Large Resources Overcoming MSI Size Limits (from a developer perspective) article that debates this subject.

Best regards,
Dan