File Compression

closed

Vista and XP support compression out of the box, right click, new, compressed zip folder, paste the files in.

buglawton

I compared 7zip's 7z format with Zip, compressing some test MS SQL databases, 7z format typically 35% smaller. Also 7zip manages RAR, Zip and TGZ files, it's the only proggy you need.

Stompa

Picking one site at random (there are many similar ones):

http://www.maximumcompression.com/index.html

b33r

I find Izarc the best and easiest

mr_fishbulb

b33r wrote: »

I find Izarc the best and easiest

I use that one too. The only problem I have is sometimes when you are dragging and dropping to extract a large file into windows explorer. If you change folder in windows explorer before the extraction has finished then the file can disappear into no-man's-land and you have to extract it again.

Bikertov

John_Gray wrote: »

Now compression is virtually redundant, since disks are SO BIG...!

Sorry - but COMPLETELY disagree !

Compression is not just about saving disk space ...

One of the other reason is to save bandwidth on data transmission. We use it when we send data files at work. As an .xls spreadsheet, a data file could be 10MB, whereas saved as a .csv text file and compressed, it could easily be less than 1MB. Then it is much quicker to email around etc ...

Also, in a commercial environment, good quality disk space is still not that large or cheap (ie RAIDed SCSI etc), compared to domestic drives.

buglawton

Also, is there any better way of organising whole folders several levels deep into a single encrypted file to send, know it will be identical on arrival?

John_Gray

Perhaps there should be an Ironical icon available... :rolleyes:

Bikertov

buglawton wrote: »

Also, is there any better way of organising whole folders several levels deep into a single encrypted file to send, know it will be identical on arrival?

Normally, when you 'zip' a folder structure, the structure is preserved when you 'unzip'

buglawton

Exactly, so yet another reason to use a compression program even if space or data transfer time were not an issue.