Sugarpops Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 I've been using Winzip for about 3 yrs. now to unzip zip files that I downloaded. I only recently got enuf junk on my computer that I decided to try to create my own zip files to save space. I just upgraded to the Winzip Beta 9. It has a new option for different rates of compression. The trade off is the stronger the compression, the slower it is, also some zip utilities don't work with the stronger compression. Back to the point, I have a folder with some drivers in it when I rt click and hit properties, it shows 71.0mb. After using maximum compression and zipping this file it shows 69.7mb. This doesn't seem to me like it compressed much. Isn't the main reason for a zip utility to compress files to make more room, or am I missing something? For this little bit it doesn't seem worth the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Well, I'm not a compression expert, but one thing I've noticed is that binary files don't compress anywhere near as much as document files, where there tends to be a lot more "air" in there.But even more than that, i tend to be a little cynical on subjects like this. I love software, but sometimes there's no replacement for the brute force, sheer horsepower, and sexy torque of H-A-R-D-W-A-R-E.What I'm trying to say is, storage is cheap. Get a bigger hard drive!Am I wrong?-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Most drivers are already stored in a compressed format. In fact, quite often they are already zipped or self-executing zip files with the .exe extension. You will get know benefit from compressing an already compressed file. On the other hand, you can create an archive of multiple driver files stored as one big file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 These are not active drivers for your system are they?Definitely hardware is the way to go.You could either offload some things to CDRs that are not needed (ie, downloaded files, documents, pictures, etc.).Or get a hard drive to put these things on to give you more room on your main drive for installations.But you definitely don't want to zip up anything that your system actively uses. I don't think you are actually doing this, but wanted to be sure ;)Also, unless you plan on buying WinZip ... you may want to use a more standard compression. You may just end up having to buy it whether you want to or not if you go with an aggressive compression that only WinZip will recognize. When the test period is over, you won't be able to open the files if you decide to move to anther compression program.Just something to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Am I wrong?Nope. I like your suggestion. Pricewatch has lots and lots of large drives that are less than a buck-a-gig. And you can prolly find a local store that's running a deal.I'm gonna be buying a large one for all the videos I'm taking of my new daughter. What I hate is if you're downloading several files from one site (say like icons or cursors or fonts or something like that) that they zip everything. Sheesh!! Compressing a 100kB True Type font file to 99kB is ridiculous.:off soapbox: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeber Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 About the only time I use the compression side of WinZip is when emailing. If I'm sending text or pictures, I usually zip them first in case the recipient has limited space in their mailbox (like Hotmail - I think their limit, on the free mail service, is 50MB of storage space). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 I have some archive files that I store zipped.Now that Winzip allows me to send "executable" files, I use it more for emailing.I have never tried to store compressed files on removable storage.OK, I'll zip it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisP Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Well, there's really another very useful feature of WinZip -- the utility makes it extremely simple to span multiple floppies with an archive. I know -- some of you may not think that's important, but hear me out...How often are you reworking a system for a client only to find that you need to download some necessary support file... like maybe the modem or NIC driver or setup app. OK -- so you go to the right site and find the needed file, only to find that it's too big for a single floppy. Solution? Simple -- unzip the archive into its own folder on the HDD of the system where you DL'd it. Then, repack it to diskette using the "span floppies" option.BTW -- I keep an archived copy of the WinZip v8.0 installer around for this -- it is only 1.2MB and thus fits nicely on a floppy for installation of the client's system if needed... which then allows extraction of the spanned floppies there.Another useful feature is the "split ZIP file" feature, which allows the separation of a large .ZIP file into several smaller chunks for easy transfer or transport -- such as e-mailing a large .ZIP that exceeds the mail attachment size limit -- you just send it pieces for later reassembly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irkregent Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 ...I have a folder with some drivers in it when I rt click and hit properties, it shows 71.0mb. After using maximum compression and zipping this file it shows 69.7mb...The files being compressed have a lot to do with this. For example, if you're compressing a bunch of JPEG image files, you probably won't gain much space at all. A JPEG file can use data compression already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistedcranium Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Even though this has nothing to do with compression...another advantage, and big one at that for using zip programs is to send someone a set of files, that exist in subfolders. The ZIP program can be told to retain the folder structure. So if a create a windows theme set with icons, wavs for system sounds, a screen saver and the windows startup screen, I can select the files to go in the package, no matter what directories they may exist in and have them end up in the same place when they are extracted.Imagine...c:\windows\wallpaper.bmpc:\logo.sysc:\wavs\winstart.wavI zip those up and inside the zip file the 'path' column looks like...windows\\wavs\So the recipient of the zip, extracts the files simply to their C: drive root, and the zip program puts the files right into the same paths as above, and if the paths don't exist, it creates them!*Pretty friggin sweet if'n you ask me.....its a nice way to send someone who knows little about PCs a set of files and have the zip file do the work***And for us linux folks, we use tar and gzipped files (*.tar and *.tar.gz).....what's really cool, is that winzip and linux based archivers support multiple formats including *.zip and *.gz** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistedcranium Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 oh and two more items.....1. some folks who use Outlook (yech) for their mail may have a setup where exe attachments are denied access. Tossing the exe inside the zip file, even if it doesn't compress, gets it past that limitation2. while I wouldn't seal the "who really shot JFK reports" with this feature, Winzip also allows one to add a password to the zipfile, rendering the extracting of the zipfile contents futile unless you have the password Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 One more thought like yours, TwistedCranium, is that many email packages will detach text or html messages and force them into the body of the email message (or at least, that's a setting many have). By placing them in a Zip file, you prevent that from happening.I'm a big WinZip user. But mostly for the reasons many people have mentioned in this thread. Like Jeber said, it's not for compression; it's for sending email attachments with a lot of control and flexibility. For me, that's the main attraction.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucekrymow Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 You can also use it to 'stitch' together a bunch of files such as a series of MPGs to create one continous file. The same can be done in reverse to split nearly any file into more manageable pieces for whatever requirements or limitations might be at hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 The previously mentioned "Spanning" option is why I decided to purchase WinZip in the first place. I don't remember the version number but at the time it was unlocked when the product was registered. At the time it was a great option. I use Winzip 8.1 now but not nearly as often as I use WinRAR 3.0 which is another tool for archives.I also like the fact that you can use the folder path setting to remember the folder structure of the files before you zip them up. WinZip's "Move" option instead of "Add" is also useful. With WinRAR you can do these things plus add comments easily, protech the file from damage, password protect..rar files are much more compressed that the .zip files. Well depending on which setting in WinRAR you use. It works similarly to WinZip but can take quite some time archiving the files selected. It works great for media files, allows splitting up of parts so you can fit onto a floppy, email attachment, internet post or even CD sized pieces for those really big files.I also use a parity program to make parity files of those split part rar files. Say 10% worth of parity files just incase there is a bit of corruption in the transmit. WinRAR has an option to creat recovery files but it is not as easy as the PAR files. So with WinZip, WinRAR and FSRaid I am all set for my archiving needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Part of the problem is that the zip format itself isn't very good. Both ace and rar usually compress files much smaller. From what I've seen rar usually compresses the smallest (well uharc does, but I hate command lines) with ace coming in second.btw you might want to try powerarchiver. I switched years ago (back when it was free) and it can unzip anything winzip does but it also supports blackhole (bh) which occasionally compresses things smaller than zip can. Of course if you're willing to shell out the cash winrar is very nice (I've never cared for winace). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Okay first of all, zip compression is built-in with Windows Xp by default, so you don't really need WinZip to deal with zip files. As for WinZip Beta 9, the only best thing about it is that now it comes with encryption scheme, so when you zip it, you just need to type in a password, and data will be compressed and encrypted. There is not much compression improvement, but I have read reviews about it on eWeek. It is said that if you must rely on WinZip, you might as well switch over to PicoZip since it has far more options with more format support (other than zip) yet you are still paying at the same price. Lastly, my experience tells me to stay away from both of them because Zip is truly outdated format. Ace is nice, but it is not very very popular. Now a day, I then to find Rar more powerful than the rest of compression formats beside Ace. Anyway, if you could, you might as well make the switch from WinZip to WinRAR at http://www.rarlab.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 I like winrar, but why pay? I mentioned that I use powerarchiver, which I got when it was free. If you want a free solution you can find a free version of pa at the internet archieve's wayback machine and then just download the new dlls for uncompressing rar and ace from winrar and winace's sites. You won't be able to rar or ace anything, but you can uncompress nearly anything and compress to cab, lha, zip and bh. Did I mention its free (I'm soooo cheap). Plus the compression of rar and ace aren't that much better than zip, but they do tend to be much faster (at least for me). Of course you can also stick with the built in zip compatability, but you'll be s.o.l. if you ever need to uncompress rar, ace, bzip, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Eh you pay for WinRAR because it has very nice compression scheme. UnRAR is free...of course.. it is RAR that's the catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcubednyc Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Okay first of all, zip compression is built-in with Windows Xp by default, so you don't really need WinZip to deal with zip files.Maybe not to unzip, but Windows XP zipping didn't work well for me. I tried zipping different groups of Word documents and text files together, and XP kept dropping files. Then I'd try to add the files that were left out to the archive, and XP would appear to do it, but when I checked the archive the files still weren't there. The lack of an error or failure message was particularly troubling -- you're screwed if you delete your original files, thinking they are now saved in the archive, then find out too late that they aren't. In short, I'd urge anyone using XP's zipping, uh, "capability" to do so with extreme caution. I finally gave up on it and installed WinZip, which has never let me down -- it was, IIRC, the first non-MS software I ever bought.Further to brucekrymow's point about stitching files together, a friend complained that he didn't like playing live albums in his car's MP3 player because the player inserted gaps between all the tracks, so I suggested he zip all the tracks together, change the *.zip extension to *.mp3, and load it into his player. It worked -- the player doesn't have to seek between tracks anymore, since it is playing only one file, so no more gaps. It's a good way to solve that particular problem, if you don't want to bother reripping your CD as one continuous file.--Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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