Jump to content

7-Zip SFX Archive- Why Inconsistent?


Recommended Posts

Hey UA-Addicts!

I've made one month ago an SFX 7-Zip Archive for my Drivers. The Drivers.Exe made thereby had Final Size of 46.1 MB, while the Uncompressed Drivers Folder was of 253 MB size. Parameters used during Compression were as follows:

Archive : Drivers.EXE

Archive Format : 7z

Compression Level : Ultra

Compression Method: LZMA

Dictionary Size: 32 MB

Word Size: 64

Update Mode : Add and Replace Files

Options : Create SFX Archive

And Nothing else.

Now, today, I included another folder inside Drivers Folder which is named INTELINF and which contains all the .INF files for Intel-Based Drivers. The Size of this IntelINF folder is only 584 KB. So the total Size of Drivers Folder now stands at 253 MB+584 KB ~ = 254 MB. Then i got thunderstrike. With all the above compression criteria applied again, this Driver folder is now 7-Zipped into an SFX archive, named Drivers.EXE. Final Size is now, 115 MB. :(

In vain i tried a few things, that i wish to narrate:

1. Increased the Dictionary Size to 64 MB, result is just reduction by 1 MB. Drivers.EXE is now resized to 114 MB. :no:

2. I started with previously built Drivers.EXE of 46.1 MB Size. Extracted it and then tried to make the sfx archive from the folder that is just extracted. Size of the Drivers folder is 253 MB, same as it was one month ago. At least, this size has no change! Now, surprise after surprise, 253 MB is compressed into 85 MB.

Can anybody feel my plight? I'm completely speechless and wish to be headless any moment. In all the cases i used 7-Zip 4.24 Beta version.

I'm in urgent need of help. Please comment, ASAP. :}

Link to comment
Share on other sites


This is just an off-the wall thought ... are you sure you are not including your original 'drivers.exe' in the new archives by mistake? The numbers you quote for filesizes are pretty close to multiples of the size you quoted for the drivers.exe.....

Even changing the compression methods should not result in that much of a size increase.

SP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@seapagan,

Sorry mate, no chance of including any already packaged Drivers.EXE inside the new archive. Before posting the problem I checked if i've done the mistake as stated by you.Nope. I've seen the same scenario to happen in another PC of my friend. What I request you or any forum member is to just unpack the same archive if you've made any, and try to repack it again with the same set of options that i've used. If possible, just try it in a temporary directory and please let me know the outcome. Your feedback is too important for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Moonlight Sonata,

I just did a quick test on 25Mb of mp3s. Same settings as you, but I'm using v4.23 not the beta.

Archived, extracted, add an additional 50Kb file to it, re-archived again. Roughly the same size.

Perhaps there's something going on with v4.24.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@vcBlackBox & seapagan,

Thanks for the all testings done. Your comments really delighted me as now I know certainly that 4.24b had some inconsistency issues. Now, which one gives better compression result, 4.23 or 4.26? Can you please inform me that by percentage how much compression these versions achieve and replicates therafter, so that I can decide which version to use.

Thanks, for your overwhelming response. Just post one more comment to "postkill" this thread and my worries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at the changelogs on their site, it seems that differences between 4.23 and 4.26 beta is mostly bug fixes and language additions. They probably have comparable compression, or certainly not enough difference that you are going to notice in compressing the number of files you are talking about.

If you are happy using beta software go for 4.26b, otherwise stay on 4.23.

SP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...