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    Compress an archive?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by eleron911, May 19, 2008.

  1. eleron911

    eleron911 HighSpeedFreak

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    I have a 55 MB archive full of seminars, courses and labs... I need to make it MUCH smaller, is there a way to shrink it even more?
    The files themselves take about 65MB.
    I have both WinRar and WinAce.
     
    eleron911, May 19, 2008
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  2. mitch92uk

    mitch92uk Notebook Enthusiast

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    You could highlight them all, right click and send to a compressed (.zip) folder, or using winrar compress them into a .rar file.
     
    mitch92uk, May 19, 2008
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  3. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

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    Did you try KGB?They have the best I have ever seen
     
    The_Observer, May 19, 2008
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  4. eleron911

    eleron911 HighSpeedFreak

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    I need to have a max 10 MB archive. Is it possible to shrink it to , say 15% ? (10 MB out of 60)
     
    eleron911, May 19, 2008
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  5. Gregory

    Gregory disassemble?

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    I just tried 7-Zip the other day. It compressed a folder of drivers from 45.6MB to 24.9MB.

    It is worth a try.

    The compression ratio isn't quite as high as you're looking for, but I don't think I used the highest compression option. (I haven't quite figured out how to use the program ;) )
     
    Gregory, May 19, 2008
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  6. eleron911

    eleron911 HighSpeedFreak

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    So does anybody know any good software that can squeeze 60 megs into 10 ?
     
    eleron911, May 19, 2008
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  7. Sredni Vashtar

    Sredni Vashtar Notebook Evangelist

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    Compression ratios may vary according to the file type and inherent compression of the file at hand.
    A txt file will give you high compression ratios (ending with 5-10% of the initial length), while a jpg image, being already compressed won't change its size even with the best compressor around.

    Pdf files are also difficult to compress, it's just like trying to zip a zip file.

    Therefore, maybe you won't be able to do what you want.
    You might want to change the format into which your courses, labs and seminars are written, and that could be very time consuming if not unfeasible.

    Certain documents (Mathematica notebooks, for example) can be saved without pictures by leaving to the user the task to recreate them. This can change their size form tens of MB to a few kB only. Maybe your format allows you to do something like that.
     
    Sredni Vashtar, May 19, 2008
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  8. Icewalker

    Icewalker Notebook Consultant

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    Compressing an already compressed file will hardly do what you want. In fact, the resulting file may become bigger.

    Your best bet is to uncompress the archive, and try to compress its contents again with 7zip, using maximum compression that 7zip allows.

    Hope this helps.
     
    Icewalker, May 19, 2008
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  9. ttupa

    ttupa Tech Elitist NBR Reviewer

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    If you're sending them through email, couldn't you extract the files, split them into two or more folders, and re-compress the separate folders? Then you could send out a couple messages instead of just one. Maybe it is not the best method, but it may be quicker than trying to squeeze that much data into such a small archive.

    Then again, maybe you're not emailing. :)
     
    ttupa, May 19, 2008
    #9