Easy Zip File (V. 3.0 )
Create Zip File Properties
This version of the Easy Zip File program can create several different types of compressed files. A standard Zip File ends with the letters 'ZIP'. A 'Tar Ball' (TAR) is a format orginally developed for the UNIX system, and now used on PCs as well. A Gzipped file (GZ) can only contain one single file, and often a Tar Ball is compressed in GZip format. You can select the default method for creating a zipped file, or you can choose to be prompted with a message requesting the file type by checking the appropriate box.
If you want to compress a very large number of files, then the option of choice is to create a'Gzipped Tar Ball'. You can make extremely large zip files, but you will have to wait for hours (or perhaps all night depending on the speed of your computer.) As an example, I recently wanted to compress and back up about 48,000 files that were about 600 megabytes. Using ZIP, I waited for hours and hours and it still wasn't done. By making a GZipped Tar Ball, it was done in about an hour, and the result was a Gzipped Tar Ball that was about 250 megabytes, less than half the size of the original files. So it is much quicker with large number of files, and it is also a very effective compressor (keep in mind that some files compress very well, some are average, and some, like JPEG images, don't compress at all...600 megabytes of JPEGs or GIFs or ZIP files (which are already compressed) would result in a 600 megabyte compressed file - you saved nothing). In my case the files were the type that do compress very well. The TAR File takes almost no time to make, and the GZipping of large TAR BALLS is much quicker than trying to zip 48,000 small files.
Keep in mind here that when you make a Gzipped Tar Ball, your computer must first make a temporary Tar Ball, and since TAR BALLS are NOT compressed, the Tar Ball will be about the same size as the files you are trying to compress (so 600 megabytes of files will create about a 600 megabyte Tar Ball, with a slight increase in size due to the Tar Records). What this means is that if you are tight on disk drive space you may not be able to make a very large Gzipped Tar Ball using this program. One option, used in the past, was to delete each file as it went into the Tar Ball thus keeping the amount of space about the same during the process, and thus you would only need room for the Gzipped file, but I have not implemented this function of erasing files off of people's drives at this time, since it strikes me as being to risky, since a computer can crash, the power can suddenly go out, etc.
If you have a number of drives or drive partitions on your computer, the Gzip Tar Ball routine will look for a drive that has lots of empty space if the current drive is to small to hold the tar ball. If it finds one it will create a temporary file on this drive (for example D:\eziptemp'). I just mention this since if for some reason the computer crashes or the power goes out in the middle of the process the program can leave behind one of these temporary folders, and so if you open a drive using my computer and you see 'eziptemp' as a folder, and the Easy Zip File program is not running, then you know that the program did not end normally and you can retrieve disk space by dumping that folder into the recycle bin. Do not do this while the program is running or you will crash the program (and perhaps generate a blue screen of death, forcing you to restart your computer and wait for that endless scan disk thing to scan your disks, something you should never stop your computer from doing unless you want to risk turning you disk drive into a plate of scrambled eggs!)
If you wish to keep files organized in folders in the zip file just as they are on your disk drive, check the first box on the ADD FILES property page. Folders can include other folders within them. If you want to include all the folders inside selected folders check the second box. If you want only the files inside a selected folder, and do not want to include all the other folders within the selected folder, leave the second box unchecked. A relative path describes the folders in which a file is found relative to the starting point. For example, suppose that a folder named 'First' contains a folder named 'Second' which includes a folder named 'Third'. If you select the folder 'Second' and check the relative path box, and you have chosen to save the folders in the zip file, the folder path will be saved as 'Second\Third' (a relative path, which begins at the folder you selected which was 'Second'). If you do not choose to save relative paths, then the folder path would be saved as 'First/Second/Third/' (the full path on the drive which is not relative to the starting folder you selected).
The Options on the ZIP FILE page are as follows...
When an 'archive bit' is set in a file it indicates that the file has changed and needs to be 'backed up.' Checking this box will cause only those files with this archive bit set to be saved in the zip file. Windows programs use 'long file names'. If you need to create a zip file for an older DOS computer you can check this box. You can protect a zip file with a password, so that it cannot be unzipped without this authorization. Keep in mind that if you lose your password you will not be unable to unzip the zip file and access the files it contains. The zip file can be set to the time you created the file (the current time) or you can have the time of the zip file set to be the time of the newest file it contains. You can also choose to include only those files that are newer than a certain date by checking the appropriate box. This will bring up a calendar window on which you can set the cut off date.HELP INDEX
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