7-zip compression is larger

[minimoose]

I'm compressing 47GB of files, which is taking over 3 hours, but at this point part of the way through, the compressed size is slightly BIGGER than the original, will this fix itself once it's done?

[Dabombinable]

I'm compressing 47GB of files, which is taking over 3 hours, but at this point part of the way through, the compressed size is slightly BIGGER than the original, will this fix itself once it's done?

What are you compressing exactly? Because other archives and videos don't compress that well-if at all.

[shmurple]

I would be very surprised if after its done compressing the compressed file is bigger then the some of the original files. However as I understand it, compression really only benefits if your compressing lots of smaller files instead of a few or 1 big file. So your compressed file may not come out much or any smaller then it was originally.

[manikyath]

if i recall from personal experimenting, 7zip doesnt really like zipping folders larger than your RAM.

[LAwLz]

Some files are more compressible than others. What kind of files are you compressing? If it's something like video then forget it, it won't get smaller.

[minimoose]

Some files are more compressible than others. What kind of files are you compressing? If it's something like video then forget it, it won't get smaller.

 

 

if i recall from personal experimenting, 7zip doesnt really like zipping folders larger than your RAM.

 

 

I would be very surprised if after its done compressing the compressed file is bigger then the some of the original files. However as I understand it, compression really only benefits if your compressing lots of smaller files instead of a few or 1 big file. So your compressed file may not come out much or any smaller then it was originally.

 

 

What are you compressing exactly? Because other archives and videos don't compress that well-if at all.

 

It's literally all the files from an old laptop, so photos, documents, videos and music, pretty even mix,

[shmurple]

honestly I'm curious to see what happens at this point, let the archive finish compressing and let us know what size it is now compared to the 47GB it was. Although I still don't think it will be much smaller then 47GB but it will allow you to transfer the data quicker disk to disk if its all compressed into one archive.

[minimoose]

honestly I'm curious to see what happens at this point, let the archive finish compressing and let us know what size it is now compared to the 47GB it was. Although I still don't think it will be much smaller then 47GB but it will allow you to transfer the data quicker disk to disk if its all compressed into one archive.

Unfortunately I had to cancel the compression, because my hard drive ran out of space, it doesn't delete files as it compresses them. 

[shmurple]

Oh yeah no I don't know if there is software that compresses files and deletes them as it goes. I feel like if something went wrong during the compression or you canceled the compression part way that would be very bad.