Zipping a file without compression

[xentropa]

Is there any benefit to this?  

 

If you were to zip a file (or multiple files) without compression, would it be less likely to get corrupted than if you were to use compression?

[Electronics Wizardy]

no reason not co compress.

[AresKrieger]

Besides saving a tiny amount of time there is no benefit since the compression is 100% reversable

[Energycore]

I would only see it useful if you were to encrypt it and password protect it

[xentropa]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

Besides saving a tiny amount of time there is no benefit since the compression is 100% reversable

True.  I suppose once every file passes the CRC check after the archive is made the chances of data corruption is probably nil to none.

[Moderateshadow]

4 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I would only see it useful if you were to encrypt it and password protect it

you can do this with a zipped file.

[Enderman]

No there is no benefit, the compression algorithms used will not corrupt/lose any data.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If corruption were to happen on the zip file itself regardless if it compressed or not, you may lose everything in that file anyway.

[Energycore]

36 minutes ago, Moderateshadow said:

you can do this with a zipped file.

My point was, only then is a file worth zipping without compression.

 

Actually, I have another use for zipping without compression: if you want a whole bunch of small files to be copied sequentially from one HDD to another (faster)

[Mira Yurizaki]

22 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Actually, I have another use for zipping without compression: if you want a whole bunch of small files to be copied sequentially from one HDD to another (faster)

I was thinking about this, but I found a better solution: write it as an ISO or a VHD. Why? Because when you're looking through it, you can still take advantage of say picture thumbnails and when you transfer the ISO or VHD file itself, it still acts like a single file.

 

As a comparison, I made an ISO of 2067 files. It took 30 seconds to transfer the ISO, but nearly twice that to copy the folder itself.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I was thinking about this, but I found a better solution: write it as an ISO or a VHD. Why? Because when you're looking through it, you can still take advantage of say picture thumbnails and when you transfer the ISO or VHD file itself, it still acts like a single file.

 

As a comparison, I made an ISO of 2067 files. It took 30 seconds to transfer the ISO, but nearly twice that to copy the folder itself.

Ah, thanks for the tip.

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Ah, thanks for the tip.

I just realized I can now do this to one of my games which has 100K+ files on it and I dread moving it around.

 

And I don't even have to unpack it to play it. I just mount the file.

[xentropa]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I just realized I can now do this to one of my games which has 100K+ files on it and I dread moving it around.

 

And I don't even have to unpack it to play it. I just mount the file.

Is there a zip file to virtual drive mounter?

[Energycore]

5 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I just realized I can now do this to one of my games which has 100K+ files on it and I dread moving it around.

 

And I don't even have to unpack it to play it. I just mount the file.

Can 7Zip make an iso?

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, xentropa said:

Is there a zip file to virtual drive mounter?

Type up diskmgmt.msc in start search and launch the program it finds. Under "Action" in the menu bar, there are options for creating and mounting VHDs. However, I'm not sure if this is available on home editions of Windows.

 

The ISO method works otherwise. You just need a CD burner tool that can write an ISO instead (I use ImgBurn) and virtual optical drive (I use VirtualCloneDrive). The only problem with the ISO method is you can't add or delete files from it.

 

Just now, Energycore said:

Can 7Zip make an iso?

Nup. But most CD burner programs have this option.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Type up diskmgmt.msc in start search and launch the program it finds. Under "Action" in the menu bar, there are options for creating and mounting VHDs. However, I'm not sure if this is available on home editions of Windows.

 

The ISO method works otherwise. You just need a CD burner tool that can write an ISO instead (I use ImgBurn) and virtual optical drive (I use VirtualCloneDrive). The only problem with the ISO method is you can't add or delete files from it.

 

Nup. But most CD burner programs have this option.

ISOs are read-only, then.

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Type up diskmgmt.msc in start search and launch the program it finds. Under "Action" in the menu bar, there are options for creating and mounting VHDs. However, I'm not sure if this is available on home editions of Windows.

It's available in Windows 10 Pro. I just checked.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

It's available in Windows 10 Pro. I just checked.

I meant home editions.

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I meant home editions.

I'm pretty sure Disk Management doesn't change across Windows 10 versions. 

[AshleyAshes]

There are some applications where it makes sense.  Compressed Media (MKVs, MP3s, AVIs, JPGs) files for example gain negligible benefit from lossless ZIP or RAR compression.  These files, by the nature of their compression formats, remove as much redundant data as possible, there's no benefit and in some cases the compression overhead of ZIP or RAR compression will make the resulting ZIP or RAR file LARGER than the original.  (Not by much mind you)  So if you are zipping or RARing files for some reason, it can make sense to disable compression to avoid wasting CPU cycles compressing and decompressing something that will not benefit from it.

 

From there it's about when you would need to ZIP or RAR files.  Sometimes content is put in many smaller RAR files to portion it up.  A lot of the content I get from Usenet is in many RAR files that are downloaded, PARed and then unRARed before the larger file in all the RAR files is extracted.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I'm pretty sure Disk Management doesn't change across Windows 10 versions. 

Yes but you can't be too sure about Microsoft and their editions shenanigans.

[Godlygamer23]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Yes but you can't be too sure about Microsoft and their editions shenanigans.

I'll check on my Windows 10 Home laptop.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Yes but you can't be too sure about Microsoft and their editions shenanigans.

I have the ability to create and attach VHDs in Windows 10 Home.