Question

Need to compress and post several large files (over 1 GB in size after being compressed) on an FTP site. What is the best format to use: .ZIP or .RAR (or is there a better file compression method)?

Asked by: TechSupportExpert

I need to compress and post several large application files (over 1 GB in size after being compressed and zipped) onto an FTP site. What is the best format to use: .ZIP or .RAR (or is there a better file compression method to use [that uses better file compression])?

I know that the .zip format is the most common and most popular method to zip files (to combine several files into a single zip file and to highly compress the files), but is there a better method that will result in the highest and most efficient compression?

Are there any other file compression and zipping programs that are better than WinZip or WinRar?

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Asked On
2009-10-28 at 17:38:33ID24853199
Tags

Winzip

,

WinRar

,

FTP

,

file compression

Topics

File Compression Utilities

,

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

,

Windows Server 2008

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
2

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Answers

 

by: alanhardistyPosted on 2009-10-28 at 17:52:06ID: 25689723

It all depends on the type of file being compressed.  If you try to compress an image file - it won't reduce by much.  If you compress a TXT file - it will reduce dramatically.

Both Winrar or Winzip should compress to pretty much the same sort of size.

 

by: b0lsc0ttPosted on 2009-10-28 at 18:25:10ID: 25689888

Is this done to update existing files?  If so a common way that is much more efficient is "patching."  Basically you have a program that makes a "patch" file after comparing the new to the original.  The patch program can usually distribute brand new files to and will compress them.  However when you are just trying to "upgrade" a file this can be an especially efficient method.  A program called RTPPatch is one I have used in cases like that.

The type of files can make a difference as the expert said.  Other compression formats to try may include gzip, which is also pretty well supported and common.  I also believe 7zip or TAR files may be worth looking at but I am not sure how they compare.

bol

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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