Best Free Softwares for Large File Compression?

[frontscript]

So i have a couple of folders over 1.5GB and some over 4GB. So, I am looking for a good compression software which can help me compress these folders from to 1GB or a couple hundred MB like 700, 600 or 500.
I have tried WinRar it doesn't seem to work that good.

[adm0n]

There are only a couple of compression algorithms out there. Most compression is limited by the amount of information that is actually in the files, so if winrar doesn't work, there is likely nothing that will work. Unless you know of specific redundancies in the data, that could be used to make the compression more efficient.

 

You can play around with the settings of winrar though.

[wowsocoolz]

7zip allows much better granular control of compression, it will also tell you the compression ratio (how compressed the folder archive is by %), you can change the dictionary size, compression method, block size, memory usage etc

If you are unsure what these terms mean, 7zip has compression presets in its GUI: i.e. "not very compressed = fast, very compressed = slow"

 

Some data formats will not compress very well with lossless data compression (what programs like winrar and 7zip use), i.e. binary applications, images

Whereas some other formats compress much better, i.e. databases, plaintext, etc.

 

Make sure you are aware of the difference, and pick the best one for your use case (lossy or lossless compression)

[Kilrah]

Lossless compression isn't magic, it'll depend on the data in the files. What are they? If media files they're already as compressed as they can be losslessly.

[Thomas53]

 

There's no need to get a program that will only duplicate what you already have. The application is called "tar"

To use it, open either the Terminal and enter:

tar -cvzf archive name.tar <path to folder to compress>

 

This will compress the file to the directory you're in

 

For more help and flags type:

tar --help

 

And to extract:

tar -zxvf archive name.tar -C path to extraction location

[wowsocoolz]

18 minutes ago, Thomas53 said:

 

There's no need to get a program that will only duplicate what you already have. The application is called "tar"

To use it, open either the Terminal and enter:

tar -cvzf archive name.tar <path to folder to compress>

 

This will compress the file to the directory you're in

 

For more help and flags type:

tar --help

 

And to extract:

tar -zxvf archive name.tar -C path to extraction location

Judging by OP's posts, they dont seem very technical

Telling them to use a CLI application is probably a bad idea, at least with a GUI they can see all configuration options and understand the output of the program better

[Thomas53]

 

1 minute ago, wowsocoolz said:

Judging by OP's posts, he doesn't seem very technical

Telling them to use a CLI application is probably a bad idea, at least with a GUI they can see all configuration options and understand the output of the program better

You're probably right and there are even a few free online sites that will do it for you, I've tried a couple and they're OK. Also my answer is for anyone with the same question that may be a little more computer literate or is trying to learn more.

And I mean no disparagement to those who just want to use their computer, this includes my ex-wife and don't care about how it works.

[Dat Guy]

5 hours ago, frontscript said:

I am looking for a good compression software which can help me compress these folders from to 1GB or a couple hundred MB like 700, 600 or 500.

 

Hard to beat in terms of compression efficiency:

PAQ - current implementation: https://github.com/fcorbelli/zpaqfranz/

 

5 hours ago, adm0n said:

There are only a couple of compression algorithms out there.

 

No.

[adm0n]

8 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

No.

If we talk about lossless compression for generic files, there are only a few algorithms that are used. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_compression#Methods)

[Dat Guy]

That list literally says “some of the most common”, which is almost the exact opposite of “all”.

[frontscript]

On 8/12/2024 at 9:27 PM, adm0n said:

There are only a couple of compression algorithms out there. Most compression is limited by the amount of information that is actually in the files, so if winrar doesn't work, there is likely nothing that will work. Unless you know of specific redundancies in the data, that could be used to make the compression more efficient.

 

You can play around with the settings of winrar though.

can you tell me any specific settings, I have many folders of over 3/4 GB which winrar settings can bring the 3GB to 1.5 or somewhere around there?

[frontscript]

On 8/12/2024 at 9:49 PM, wowsocoolz said:

7zip allows much better granular control of compression, it will also tell you the compression ratio (how compressed the folder archive is by %), you can change the dictionary size, compression method, block size, memory usage etc

If you are unsure what these terms mean, 7zip has compression presets in its GUI: i.e. "not very compressed = fast, very compressed = slow"

 

Some data formats will not compress very well with lossless data compression (what programs like winrar and 7zip use), i.e. binary applications, images

Whereas some other formats compress much better, i.e. databases, plaintext, etc.

 

Make sure you are aware of the difference, and pick the best one for your use case (lossy or lossless compression)

should i use ultra or store option if i want the best compression, i don't care if slow and takes time i just want the folder to be half its size, also what does dictionary size do and how much should i allocate for a 4GB folder?

[frontscript]

On 8/12/2024 at 9:59 PM, Kilrah said:

Lossless compression isn't magic, it'll depend on the data in the files. What are they? If media files they're already as compressed as they can be losslessly.

video files

[frontscript]

On 8/12/2024 at 10:26 PM, Thomas53 said:

 

You're probably right and there are even a few free online sites that will do it for you, I've tried a couple and they're OK. Also my answer is for anyone with the same question that may be a little more computer literate or is trying to learn more.

And I mean no disparagement to those who just want to use their computer, this includes my ex-wife and don't care about how it works.

It's alright i love learning new stuff, I'll give the terminal a try. Also which online sites have you use, can you recommend any good ones.

[frontscript]

I downloaded the HandBrake software if any of you have used please let me know of any good settings or any online guides.

[adm0n]

1 hour ago, frontscript said:

can you tell me any specific settings, I have many folders of over 3/4 GB which winrar settings can bring the 3GB to 1.5 or somewhere around there?

It sadly doesn't work that way. The best thing you can do, is tell winrar to use the highest compression rate. As far as I know, no one actually uses that setting though, as you likely save a couple of byte more space, but have to invest an unreasonable amount of resources (processor time, power) into it. The compression ratio you will achieve depends entirely on how compressible the data inside is.

 

If you have a specific kind of data, like pictures/videos/audio you can look into the specific compression algorithm used for that. But you will likely want to check out lossy compression in that case as well.

[Avocado Diaboli]

Why exactly do you want to halve to storage size of your data to begin with? Seems like an arbitrary goal.