Compression

[Dee]

I have this file that's around 750 megs, and I want to compress it so it can fit on a regular 700 meg CD-R. I tried using WinZip, but it ends up being 730 megs - not much help.

What should I use, or how can I change WinZip so that it'll compress it more?

[Dr Unne]

There's an option in Winzip when you're compressing, something that lets you pick the speed or something. You should pick "Slowest". That'll give the best compression.

Different programs might use different compression schemes also. You could try WinRAR. Or try tar-ing it, or using pk-zip or something. Not too sure if that'd work.

[Dee]

I did actually tried slowest. It was the same outcome as Normal.

[crono_logical]

WinRAR tends to have better compression ratios than WinZIP, try using that instead - setting it to best compression, and enabling multimedia compression, can also improve its ratio over ZIP format, although it can also take significantly longer to compress. My computer (1200Mhz) can compress the WinXP CD (500 Megs) on max. compression in one and a half hours, if it'll give you an idea of how long you'll need.

[Spatvark]

Personally, I'd get a copy of Pkzip, and use that in dos... it does the exact same job as Winzip, but far better...

[Dee]

I used WinRAR as well, and set it so that the file will be 690 megs. It ended up splitting the file into two parts, one 690 megs and another 60 megs. Not exactly what I wanted..... ><

Is PkZip made by Microsoft?

[crono_logical]

I don't think PKZIP is Microsoft's, if I remember correctly it's shareware but it's been a long time since I used it.

If WinRaR is unable to compress the file below 700 Megs with maximum compression (might be called Best or Slowest), solid archive mode, and multimedia compression mode all enabled, then I very much doubt you can compress it any further, the .RAR format is the strongest compression scheme you can get readily available at the moment.

[Spatvark]

Here's a link for PkZip Save it to the hard drive and then run it in Dos/Dos prompt pkzip /? to learn how to use it... and then compress the files... you can use Winzip to extract them later...

[Squally Leonharty]

The file doesn't exist. I'd love to have it. Could you fix it, please?

[Citizen Bleys]

Pkzip is made by <a href=http://www.pkware.com/>PKWare</a> (you can download PKZip for DOS from that site; Spatvark, from the looks of the link, only gave you pkzip.exe itself. Downloading from pkware will also give you pkunzip and zip2exe.

pkzip was around for at least a decade before WinZip. I still use the DOS version when I'm in DOS, WinRAR (even to create .zip archives) when I'm in 'Doze, and GNU Tar with gzip to create archives in Linux--although I usually wind up converting those to .zip before uploading them anywhere.

ZIP is the most common form of archive on the 'net, but RAR does give better compression. Also WinRAR allows you to split your files into segments of ANY SIZE, and keeps track of where in a multi-volume archive it is using the filename, not the disk label--meaning if a floppy goes kaput, you only need to get one segment of the file, whereas with a multi-volume zip file, one corrupt disk ruins the entire archive.

I believe that you get winrar from <a href=http://rarsoft.com>rarsoft.com</a>, but last time I tried to download WinRAR by typing the address from memory into the address bar, I got a porn site. If you're surfing from school, I strongly reccommend you use google to get a certain link to the WinRAR homepage.

[Spatvark]

I only posted pkzip as that was all that was needed... Dee has Winzip which will extract the files compressed by pkzip...

[crono_logical]

I believe that you get winrar from rarsoft.com, but last time I tried to d

Strange, I just tried the site just now and it works fine - maybe you did a typo, since typos usually lead you to strange sites <FONT COLOR=#000033>Or get back to me in a months time when I return to college, I have WinRaR 2.71 + crack if you want it </FONT>