why compress files?

[draboo]

i have around a 1.2 gig file i would like to burn to a cd. so i compressed it to a .zip(using xpees file compression).
i then attempted to burn it to a cd. the program said the file was too big to fit on a 658 mb. disk. it also said the file was the same size as before i compressed it.

shouldnt the program at least said how big the file is after its compressed?? it said it was still 1.2 gig or so.

the file looks like its in one of those cute little zipped folder icons from win xp. not winzip.

isnt the compression supposed to make the file smaller??

i m confused

splain,please?

thanks,eh?

brad

[Martoch]

1.2GB file?

What kind of file was it, drab? Some files are already compressed, so compression programs really don't change the size much.

Why not downoad Winzip and give that a shot? It will definitely show you the before/after file size...you won't be left wondering what happened.

[lost-and-found]

compression works by finding patterns in the specified file. Text files get compressed by a higher ratio than, let's say, an mp3, since there will be more patterns in a text file than a song file.

[samwichse]

Yeah, you can't really compress an already compressed file. For instance, an divx avi file is already heavily (and efficiantly) compressed, so all winzip can really do is just call it a zip file and give it a new extension. Now a .wav file can be compressed by a pretty good chunk or a .txt or .doc file by a huge chunk, but when you try again with something like an mp3 (also already compressed), you'll get nothing again.

Sam

[John Prophet]

The times I have tried to compress something using winzip I basically got the same thing....it would be the same size plus the headroom of the winzip.

[Dj-Icer]

too much for 1.2 gig! but it'll be alright if it were 1.2 mb perhaps, there are certain limitation storage using the zip program.
specially for lower than gig bytes.

+it doesnt compressed as much anyway through my experience. if the file is 8.20 mb, then after the compress would be merely 7.90 or 8.5..etc

[draboo]

let me splain some more,also. this is a .dat file(the 1.2 g one)that i transferred from one machine to another.ive recently built ruby a new machine and am having trouble getting all of the proggys transfered over to the new puter. have no idea what is in it,cause i forgot

am afraid to delete it.

cant find a program to open it with. i think its form a microsoft works program she uses for spreadsheets,cookbook,and the like.

i ve attempted to open it with the ms works program,but it wont open it. i tried down loading a free corel proggy,but got irritated when they asked for my life history,so i just gave up.

but i sure would like to find out if what ever it is is worth keeping

any other thoughts??

thanks once again,eh??

brad

[Redwolf]

Get WinRAR ( www.rarlab.com ). I doubt the compression will help much, but they have the option to split the RAR into multiple files. VERY handly for backups. The program is $20, but you can get a shareware 30-day trial version (full function).

Oh. and BTW, a 650 mb CD is 681574400 bytes big.

[soulja]

compressing that file size will not do anything

[shahani]

It is wrongly assumed that compressing a file is only to reduce its size. While that is certainly true, files which compress most are the .doc, xls, ppt, bmp type of files and on occassion .exe files.

However, compression or zipping, is also used as a way to archive files. You can put in thousands of files into a zip "container". Many advantages: takes less space to store one huge file as compared to thousands of small files due to cluster slack. For example, a file of 900MB would waste very little disk space compared to 150,000 files totalling 900 MB.

Secondly, there is far less chance of corruption of one file compared to larger numbers.

Thirdly, zipping a file puts it in a kind of a protected "container". Less chances of corruption when transmitted electronically.