zip compression

[homeshire]

i'm not very knowledgeable about these things, so this really is a question born of curiosity.

i just zip compressed a fairly large file only to discover that it was not that much smaller when done. indeed, it was still too big to burn to disc as backup. not worth doing. my question is -- is that a fair characterization, or am i missing something? thanks for help and explanations.

 

[mmmdreg]

you would've zipped something that was already compressed. A lot of things are. To get by your problem, try zipping or rar'ing or whatever to the file, then split the file. I've only done that in stuffit on PC because thats where the source was. Not sure if stuffit on Mac can do it though..

 

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
you would've zipped something that was already compressed. A lot of things are. To get by your problem, try zipping or rar'ing or whatever to the file, then split the file. I've only done that in stuffit on PC because thats where the source was. Not sure if stuffit on Mac can do it though..

Stuffit is Mac-dominant. Of course it can split archives.

 

[mmmdreg]

Originally posted by MisterMe
Stuffit is Mac-dominant. Of course it can split archives.

Yeah that was more of less the way my mind was geared but usually when people assume stuff and then find out it's wrong I get annoyed so I didn't want to be hypocritical but thanx for clearing it up dude.

 

[sonofslim]

what kind of file was it? certain types of files just don't compress well.

 

[homeshire]

it's a video file i want to back up. they're just too big to leave sitting on your hard drive. aren't there other dvd types with higher capacity?

 

[mmmdreg]

video's are already compressed usually. So you won't be able to compress 'em any much further with zip.