How to Zip Files

Posted on June 15th, 2009 by Marck

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

No Comments (Post Comment)

Republish

No matter how large the capacity of a drive or storage medium is, the amount of space used to store data is always limited. Today’s documents, images, sound, and other files tend to be large, and it becomes very important for people to conserve storage space by finding ways to keep file sizes smaller. Zip files, or file archives, can help reduce the amount of space files and programs occupy on your computer.running at its optimum speed and performance.

File Archiving

Many files - particularly small programs, documents, and raw image files - occupy a large amount of space on hard disks, optical media, and solid-state storage media like USB drives and Flash cards. One way to conserve space is to delete files, but you never know when you’ll need a particular file. Archiving old files can help make the best of file storage space while maximizing space for other priority programs or files.

File archiving is also useful for sending, sharing, and distributing files. A group of files are difficult to distribute if you send one file at a time. With an archived file, you can pack all the files of a program or a folder into a single file. The archived file can then be sent via e-mail, or hosted on a file server.

Archive Types

There are many programs (both freeware and paid licensed software) that you can use to archive files. Programs like WinZIP, WinRAR, or even the default file compression and archiving utility that comes default with Microsoft Windows. Once installed, an archiving program becomes part of the command menu listed when you right-click a file to be added to an archive.

Here are some of the common archive formats available today:

ZIP archives. The PKZIP format is one of the most common file compressor formats and file extensions used for file archives. PKZUIP is well-known for its reliabilitym, and is used a lot for distributing and sending a grouo of files made available for a single download.
RAR archives. The proprietary RAR format is a popular alternative to PKZIP archives. Most archives created through a program like WinRAR are packed tighter than ZIP files, which results in a tighter, smaller archive.
Executable archives are useful for compilations of files you created yourself for a program or a utility. Instead of using an archiving utility like WinZIP or WinRAR to extract files, the .EXE file extension allows the contents of the file to be automatically extracted to the folder it is in, or through an install wizard.

For documents and files that are hanging around your hard drive or other storage devices, archiving can help preserve and conserve precious drive space. With these tips, you can optimize the amount of space in your storage disks for the best possible speed and performance for your computer.