diff --git a/scripts/package_release.sh b/scripts/package_release.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 6dc9c75..a05f2ea
--- a/scripts/package_release.sh
+++ b/scripts/package_release.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ GRUB2_INSTALL="$HIPERISO_ROOT/build/grub2-204/INSTALL"
 PAYLOAD="$HIPERISO_ROOT/build/payload"
 STAGING="$HIPERISO_ROOT/build/staging"
 
+_progress() { printf '  \033[1;34m[%d/8]\033[0m %s\n' "$1" "$2"; }
+
 # ── Dependency checks ─────────────────────────────────────────────
 command -v mcopy >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "ERROR: mtools (mmd/mcopy) required to build ESP image"; exit 1; }
 command -v mkfs.vfat >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "ERROR: dosfstools (mkfs.vfat) required"; exit 1; }
@@ -33,6 +35,7 @@ mkdir -p "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/trace"
 mkdir -p "$PAYLOAD/grub"
 mkdir -p "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64"
 
+_progress 1 "Copying boot images & EFI payloads..."
 # ── boot/ (BIOS boot images, vendored) ────────────────────────────
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/vendor/grub-i386-pc/boot.img" "$PAYLOAD/boot/boot.img"
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/vendor/grub-i386-pc/core.img" "$PAYLOAD/boot/core.img"
@@ -50,6 +53,7 @@ cp "$STAGING/OVMF.fd" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/"
 cp "$STAGING/hiperiso-log" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/"
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/logging/trace-"*.events "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/trace/"
 
+_progress 2 "Copying GRUB2 configs, themes & modules..."
 # ── grub/ (configs, themes, modules from GRUB2 2.04 build) ──────────
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/grub2/grub/grub.cfg" "$PAYLOAD/grub/"
 cp -a "$GRUB_X64_DIR" "$PAYLOAD/grub/x86_64-efi"
@@ -73,6 +77,7 @@ if [ -d "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu" ]; then
     tar -C "$PAYLOAD/grub" -czf "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu.tar.gz" menu
 fi
 
+_progress 3 "Copying installer tools & scripts..."
 # ── tool/ (installer scripts + vendored assets + binary tools) ─────
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/tool/hiperiso_lib.sh" "$PAYLOAD/tool/"
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/tool/HiperisoWorker.sh" "$PAYLOAD/tool/"
@@ -84,20 +89,16 @@ cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/assets/HiperisoGTK.glade" "$PAYLOAD/tool/HiperisoGTK.glade"
 
 for tool in ash hexdump mkexfatfs mount.exfat-fuse xzcat; do
     cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/vendor/tool-x86_64/$tool" "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/"
-    chmod +x "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/$tool"
 done
+[ -f "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/Hiperiso2Disk.qt5" ] && chmod +x "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/Hiperiso2Disk.qt5"
+[ -f "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/Hiperiso2Disk.gtk3" ] && chmod +x "$PAYLOAD/tool/x86_64/Hiperiso2Disk.gtk3"
 
 # ── Top-level scripts ───────────────────────────────────────────────
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/Hiperiso.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/HiperisoQt.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/HiperisoGtk.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/HiperisoWeb.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/HiperisoPlugson.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/Hiperiso2Disk.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/CreatePersistentImg.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/ExtendPersistentImg.sh" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/hisocli" "$PAYLOAD/"
-cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/hisolnk" "$PAYLOAD/"
+for f in Hiperiso.sh HiperisoQt.sh HiperisoGtk.sh HiperisoWeb.sh HiperisoPlugson.sh \
+         Hiperiso2Disk.sh CreatePersistentImg.sh ExtendPersistentImg.sh hisocli hisolnk; do
+    cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/src/installer/$f" "$PAYLOAD/"
+    chmod +x "$PAYLOAD/$f"
+done
 
 # ── config/ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/config/hiperiso.json.example" "$PAYLOAD/config/"
@@ -105,6 +106,7 @@ cp "$HIPERISO_ROOT/config/hiperiso.json.example" "$PAYLOAD/config/"
 # ── version ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 echo "1.0.0" > "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/version"
 
+_progress 4 "Extracting support files..."
 # Extract Ventoy-derived support files for direct boot path
 if [ -f "$HIPERISO_ROOT/vendor/support-x64.tar.xz" ]; then
     tar -xJf "$HIPERISO_ROOT/vendor/support-x64.tar.xz" -C "$STAGING/"
@@ -116,70 +118,54 @@ rm -f "$PAYLOAD/log.txt"
 sed -i 's/ventoy/hiperiso/g' "$PAYLOAD/grub/i386-pc/moddep.lst" 2>/dev/null || true
 sed -i 's/ventoy/hiperiso/g' "$PAYLOAD/grub/x86_64-efi/moddep.lst" 2>/dev/null || true
 
-# ── Build ESP disk image (32MB FAT16, what installer writes to Part 2) ──
+_progress 5 "Staging ESP content tree..."
 ESP_IMG="$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/hiperiso.disk.img"
-dd if=/dev/zero of="$ESP_IMG" bs=1M count=32 2>/dev/null
-mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n "HISOEFI" "$ESP_IMG" >/dev/null 2>&1
+ESP_STAGING=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$ESP_STAGING"' EXIT INT TERM
 
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/EFI
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/EFI/BOOT
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/EFI/hiperiso
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/EFI/hiperiso/trace
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/grub
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/tool
-mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" ::/hiperiso
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI" ::/EFI/BOOT/
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg" ::/EFI/BOOT/
-[ -f "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/mmx64.efi" ] && \
-    mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/mmx64.efi" ::/EFI/BOOT/
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/vmlinuz" ::/EFI/hiperiso/
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/initramfs.cpio.gz" ::/EFI/hiperiso/
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/OVMF.fd" ::/EFI/hiperiso/
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/hiperiso-log" ::/EFI/hiperiso/
+mkdir -p "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/BOOT" "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/hiperiso/trace" \
+         "$ESP_STAGING/grub" "$ESP_STAGING/tool" "$ESP_STAGING/hiperiso"
 
-for f in "$PAYLOAD"/EFI/hiperiso/trace/*.events; do
-    mcopy -s -i "$ESP_IMG" "$f" ::/EFI/hiperiso/trace/ 2>/dev/null || true
-done
+cp "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg" "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/BOOT/"
+[ -f "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/mmx64.efi" ] && cp "$PAYLOAD/EFI/BOOT/mmx64.efi" "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/BOOT/"
+cp "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/vmlinuz" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/initramfs.cpio.gz" \
+   "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/OVMF.fd" "$PAYLOAD/EFI/hiperiso/hiperiso-log" "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/hiperiso/"
+cp "$PAYLOAD"/EFI/hiperiso/trace/*.events "$ESP_STAGING/EFI/hiperiso/trace/" 2>/dev/null || true
 
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/grub/grub.cfg" ::/grub/
+cp "$PAYLOAD/grub/grub.cfg" "$ESP_STAGING/grub/"
 for cfg in checksum.cfg debug.cfg hwinfo.cfg keyboard.cfg localboot.cfg menulang.cfg power.cfg; do
-    [ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/$cfg" ] && mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/grub/$cfg" ::/grub/
+    [ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/$cfg" ] && cp "$PAYLOAD/grub/$cfg" "$ESP_STAGING/grub/" || true
 done
-[ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/help.tar.gz" ] && mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/grub/help.tar.gz" ::/grub/
-[ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu.tar.gz" ] && mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu.tar.gz" ::/grub/
+[ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/help.tar.gz" ] && cp "$PAYLOAD/grub/help.tar.gz" "$ESP_STAGING/grub/"
+[ -f "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu.tar.gz" ] && cp "$PAYLOAD/grub/menu.tar.gz" "$ESP_STAGING/grub/"
 for dir in themes fonts distro help menu; do
-    [ -d "$PAYLOAD/grub/$dir" ] && {
-        mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" "::/grub/$dir"
-        mcopy -s -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/grub/$dir/." "::/grub/$dir/" 2>/dev/null || true
-    }
+    [ -d "$PAYLOAD/grub/$dir" ] && cp -a "$PAYLOAD/grub/$dir" "$ESP_STAGING/grub/" || true
 done
 
-for f in "$PAYLOAD"/tool/x86_64/*; do
-    [ -f "$f" ] && mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$f" ::/tool/
-done
-for f in "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.sh "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.json "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.glade "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.cer; do
-    [ -f "$f" ] && mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$f" ::/tool/ 2>/dev/null || true
-done
-mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/version" ::/hiperiso/
+cp "$PAYLOAD"/tool/x86_64/* "$ESP_STAGING/tool/" 2>/dev/null || true
+cp "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.sh "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.json "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.glade "$PAYLOAD"/tool/*.cer \
+   "$ESP_STAGING/tool/" 2>/dev/null || true
 
+cp "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/version" "$ESP_STAGING/hiperiso/"
 for f in "$PAYLOAD"/hiperiso/*; do
     [ -f "$f" ] || continue
-    name=$(basename "$f")
-    case "$name" in hiperiso.disk.img*) continue ;; esac
-    mcopy -i "$ESP_IMG" "$f" ::/hiperiso/ 2>/dev/null || true
+    case "$(basename "$f")" in hiperiso.disk.img*) continue ;; esac
+    cp "$f" "$ESP_STAGING/hiperiso/"
 done
 for d in 7z imdisk; do
-    if [ -d "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/$d" ]; then
-        mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" "::/hiperiso/$d" 2>/dev/null || true
-        for sub in "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/$d"/*/; do
-            [ -d "$sub" ] || continue
-            subdir=$(basename "$sub")
-            mmd -i "$ESP_IMG" "::/hiperiso/$d/$subdir" 2>/dev/null || true
-            mcopy -s -i "$ESP_IMG" "$sub." "::/hiperiso/$d/$subdir/" 2>/dev/null || true
-        done
-    fi
+    [ -d "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/$d" ] && cp -a "$PAYLOAD/hiperiso/$d" "$ESP_STAGING/hiperiso/" || true
 done
 
+_progress 6 "Creating 64MB FAT16 ESP image ($(find "$ESP_STAGING" -type f | wc -l) files, $(du -sh "$ESP_STAGING" | cut -f1))..."
+dd if=/dev/zero of="$ESP_IMG" bs=1M count=64 2>/dev/null
+mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n "HISOEFI" "$ESP_IMG" >/dev/null 2>&1
+
+_progress 7 "Populating ESP (single mcopy)..."
+mcopy -s -i "$ESP_IMG" "$ESP_STAGING/"* ::/ 2>/dev/null
+rm -rf "$ESP_STAGING"
+trap - EXIT INT TERM
+
+_progress 8 "Compressing ESP image ($(du -h "$ESP_IMG" | cut -f1))..."
 xz --check=crc32 "$ESP_IMG"
 
 echo "=== hiperiso release package assembled ==="