Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Reference > Help Forum > 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?

[God]

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...