The present invention provides a method for use with program overlays, wherein code segments, along with data segments pertaining to the code segments, are transferred into a receiving memory segment. Program code is separated into common code and overlay code. The overlay code is then broken down into segments according to functionality, and the need to create segments that will fit into a receiving memory segment. An overlay control file is created for each segment, then a wrapper file. Linker command files are created for the common area and code area. The wrapper files and linker command files are used to create a common image file for the code/data. The common image is used to produce overlay sections, which are then concatenated together into one file. This one file is then loaded into memory for transfer of the overlays to a receiving memory area.