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Boneoh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 27, 2009
318
2
So. Cal.
I need to compress and backup my virtual machine images, they are around 20 Gb. Are there any fast compression utilities out there?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Mac OS X also comes with some command-line compression software, such as gzip and bzip2 (if you're comfortable with Terminal). If it's speed you want, go with gzip. For instructions, open up Terminal and type man gzip (use the arrow keys to scroll and press "q" to quit). I recommend using the -v (for increased verbosity) and --best (for highest compression) parameters.
 
I've found the built in OS X archive utility is slow for large archives, to GUI can take quite a while to come up. Download StuffIt, you tell it to make .zip archives with either greater speed or greater compression.
 
Thanks, all! I will give these all a test drive soon. :)

Hi,

What is your conclusion about this situation?

Until now, the fastest compressor that I have found is: WInZIP mac edition.
At least it is the only one that uses the CPU in full trottle.

(compressing 20 GB)
 
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