Apple Software Restore options: a follow-up

Regarding our previous note that Software Restore feature included on the new 4-disc Software Restore CDs only allows for a restore after erasing your volume: The Apple Software Restore application (ASR) is actually located with a disk image (.img) file called Restore Image.img. After mounting this image file, open the System Folder. Inside will be an application called ASR. The version that came with our iBook was 2.2.1. According to a MacFixIt reader, this version still includes the additional options (e.g., Restore in Place) but they are not enabled when doing a Restore via the included Software Restore discs. However, the reader notes that he could get these functions to work when using a custom setup:

"I have created a custom CD with a bootable system and the new ASR setup (including: ASR, Z-Prefs, and a configurations folder). I use this to pull images from my server. All images have to be scanned by Disk Copy 6.4 scripts for this procedure to work. With OS X, some files had to be deleted prior to copying. This works on both OS X (on HFS volumes) and Classic volumes....It will presumably work on a combo volume but I have yet to make it work."