Compression For Very Large Folders

#1 Tbenner019

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 09:07 AM

Hello everyone. I am attempting to clean up my computer as there is alot of crap on it. I came across a bunch of movies that equal 129 gigs of space. I don't want to delete these files and I can't afford an external hard drive. So I tried compressing them using the built in Windows XP Compression thing. It only reduced the size on disk by 1 gig. Is there any thing else I can do to greatly reduce the file size without corrupting the files? I don't watch them much, but want to perserve them.

Is there any way I can package them all together into a significantly smaller file?

This post has been edited by Tbenner019: 30 August 2007 - 09:56 AM

#2 Verify

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 03:20 PM

WinRAR, It's a very compact tool which archives files to your needs. It's highly efficient and totally free! Only thing is after 30 days every time you open a archive a pop-up comes and says "trail expire buy me now" but you can just exit it.

#3 Tbenner019

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 04:17 PM

I have winRar, but have been sceptical to use it. I ran it once and it was going to take 45 hours to compress the files said above. Now, I don't know if thats normal for 129 gigs of movies, but I'm assuming it is. Also, just a question. Does the file size of the Compression Files, DURING compression process, ever go down? Meaning its at like 150 gigs right now and its only 20% done. Is THAT normal?

#4 DaChew

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 04:25 PM

movie files in mpeg2 or mpeg4 format are already compressed and you won't be able to save any space

buy a dvd burner

Chewy

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#5 Verify

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 04:59 PM

yea its normal if your compressing 130 GIGS O_O I tihnk that after it's done it should be around 120gigs? I have no idea, also if your skeptical can it or don't use it!

#6 DaChew

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 05:02 PM

about the only thing winrar can do with video files is set a password

about like using it to compress mp3's, they are already compressed

Chewy

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#7 Tbenner019

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 05:10 PM

What about if the movie files are in .avi format? Are the .avi formats pre-compressed?

#8 DaChew

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 05:19 PM

avi's are very comnpressed. but can burn to cd if they are less than 720MB

face it there's no way out, you do have a cd burner?

Chewy

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 06:38 PM

DaChew, on Aug 30 2007, 05:19 PM, said:

avi's are very comnpressed. but can burn to cd if they are less than 720MB

face it there's no way out, you do have a cd burner?

I have to disagree, I just tested it out with a .avi file that was 170MB, when I compressed at the best choice it brought it down to 160MB. I know this isn't much but if it were around 130GB i say it would bring it down drastically.

#10 DaChew

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 09:59 PM

well in the interest of whatever I am doing a 720MB avi, looks like it going to take over 16 minutes at high compression
on a decent computer

I could have burned it in 2 1/2 minutes on a 20 cent disk that would play on a divx/xvid compatible dvd player

I gained 7MB of space, this was standard 90 min avi, very impractical operation

for 130 gigs that would take 50 hours

Chewy

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