purg99 Posted September 12, 2005 Posted September 12, 2005 (edited) Ive been playing around trying to squeeze ever meg from a standard Full Office install without removing files by means of archiving. Thought this could be helpful to others to know roughly what could be achieved.The archiving machine is a 3.4Ghz p4 1Gb (400hz) Intel with hyperthreading turned on. Some archive utils take many hours so to help save time for others im going to add details of the programs ive used, time taken, file sizes and ease.All archiving will be against a full version of Office 2003 with SP1 and hotfixes4179 Files635 MB (666,304,573 bytes)----------------------------------------------------ZIPZip SFXBest320 MB (335,891,547 bytes)Archive time taking ~5 MinutesInfo:- Not a lot else to say about this program as its been around since the start. This is the standard windows archive format and should only be use for speed, multi platform or backward compatibility. Better archiving tools exist but still has its place on the windows platform.Compression - 5Compress Speed - 9Decompress speed - 8Recommend - YES / default in winxp--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WinRAR 3.50RAR SFXBest (with default options)262 MB (274,966,810 bytes)Archive time taking ~22 MinutesInfo:- The RAR format quickly became the internets default pritate format due to its increased compression over ZIP. WinRAR comes with a good gui and shell intergration along with other options like volume splitting, a comprehensive SFX and the ability to read / write NTFS ADS's. I believe WinRAR has taken the market lead from Zip but not very popular with older users.Compression - 7Compress Speed - 8Decompress speed - 8Recommend - YES--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7Zip 4.237z SFX Solid ArchiveUltra/LZMA/Dictionary 96Mb/Word size 64234 MB (245,592,982 bytes)Archive time taking ~2 hoursInfo:- From obscurity to mainstream, 7zip is a free open source archive utility found on sourceforge. The benefits in this archive program is that you have control over the memory and thus the archive size. 7zip format has also recently been added to WinRAR for compatibility. Fully integrated into the windows shell, 7zip was quickly adopted by internet users and normally a plugin within install programs and used by many here on msfn.Compression - 8Compress Speed - 4Decompress speed - 7Recommend - YES--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PAsQDa 4.1-7214 MB (224,738,133 bytes)Archive time taking ~42 hoursInfo:- This is an experimental command line program with very limited options. Uncompressing will only use the same full path so unable to decompress onto a second drive (c: to d:). Decompression would have taken ~6 minutes but unfortunately corrupted itself in the process. Not willing to rerun the test.Compression - 9Compress Speed - 1Decompress speed - 4Recommend - NO--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WinRK xPWCM 700210 MB (221,068,682 bytes)Archive time taking ~21 hoursInfo:- Good clean gui with plenty of options but old online forum support. I would like to see better support for a program that seems to out compress its competition. From tests I have seen uncompress times ranging from 4 minutes to 12 hours! With and without errors. This is also reflected on the support forum making it unfortunately an unviable alternative but well worth experimenting with. This product is good but needs finishing so keey an eye on there site for updates (if ever).Compression - 9Compress Speed - 2Decompress speed - 5Recommend - YES for test only--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FileCompress 2.0 beta (UHARC 0.6)ALZ Best | Dictionary 32768241 MB (253,595,126 bytes)Archive time taking ~44 minutesInfo:- tbaCompression - 8Compress Speed - 6Decompress speed - xRecommend - tba---------------------------------------------------- Edited September 27, 2005 by purg99
KamiQuazi Posted September 14, 2005 Posted September 14, 2005 To me Winrar is the most relibile then comes 7zip
purg99 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Posted September 14, 2005 (edited) Personally ive never seen winrar compress better than 7zip. When you have limited size like a CD you need compression over ease. This is why ive tried different programs, but for sure rar & zip are the fastest and more user friendly. Edited September 14, 2005 by purg99
Zxian Posted September 14, 2005 Posted September 14, 2005 I'm just wondering about the last two compression programs... how are the decompression times?@purq99 - Yes, compression is important, but if the last two methods take a rediculous amount of time to decompress, then they are not viable solutions for compressing to fit on an install CD... who wants to wait 20-odd hours for installing your computer?
Scubar Posted September 14, 2005 Posted September 14, 2005 Winrar seems to be the best option there, an extra 1hr 40mins just for an extra 30mb saved space just isnt worth it. imo
purg99 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Posted September 14, 2005 I'm just wondering about the last two compression programs... how are the decompression times?If you think how compression works decompression shouldnt take anywhere near as long but after winrk finishes i'll test and also add more infomation for each prog.an extra 1hr 40mins just for an extra 30mb saved space just isnt worth it. imoNormally I would completely agree but think of it more like this.30Mb is the difference between using NERO or Windows built in cd burner.DreamweaverMX or Notepadhow aboutSymantec Norton AV or the luck of the gods.
Zxian Posted September 14, 2005 Posted September 14, 2005 I'm just wondering about the last two compression programs... how are the decompression times?If you think how compression works decompression shouldnt take anywhere near as long but after winrk finishes i'll test and also add more infomation for each prog.This is true to a degree... decompressing a plain jane ZIP file takes much less time than a 7-zip Ultra file. an extra 1hr 40mins just for an extra 30mb saved space just isnt worth it. imoNormally I would completely agree but think of it more like this.30Mb is the difference between using NERO or Windows built in cd burner.DreamweaverMX or Notepadhow aboutSymantec Norton AV or the luck of the gods.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yup... and also when you do compress... hopefully you only do it once or twice and keep the file for future use.
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