How to compress files as much as possible into a winrar archive. Compressing files in WinRar - how to do it as efficiently as possible. Archive in ZIP using OS WINDOWS

Dozens of archivers are popular on the Internet today, and in the description of each program you can find that its algorithm is the very best... I decided to take several popular archivers on the Internet, namely: WinRar, WinUha, WinZip, KGB archiver, 7Z and test them in “combat” » conditions.

A little preface... The comparison may not be very objective. The comparison of the ahivators was carried out on the most common home computer, the average for today. In addition, different types of data were not taken: the compression comparison was carried out on a regular “Word” document, of which many who study or work with them can accumulate a huge amount. Well, it is logical that it is advisable to pack information that you rarely use into an archive and sometimes extract it. And it’s much easier to transfer such a file: it will be copied to a flash drive faster than a bunch of small files, and it will be downloaded faster over the Internet...

Compression comparison table

For a small experiment, a relatively large RTF file was taken - about 3.5 MB and compressed with different archivers. We are not taking into account the operating time yet, the features of the programs will be discussed further, but now we will just look at the compression level.

As can be seen from the small plate, the highest compression ratio is achieved with the KGB Archiver 2 program - the original file size has decreased by 23 times! Those. if you have several gigabytes of various documentation on your hard drive that you don’t use and want to delete (but you can’t shake the feeling that it might come in handy) - wouldn’t it be easier to compress it with such a program and write it to disk...

But about all the pitfalls in order...

KGB Archiver 2

In general, it’s not a bad archiver; according to the developers, their compression algorithm is one of the “strongest”. It's hard to disagree...

Only the compression speed leaves much to be desired. For example, the file in the example (about 3 MB) was compressed by the program for about 3 minutes! It is not difficult to estimate that she will compress one CD disc for half a day, if not more.

But this is not particularly surprising. Unpacking a file takes as long as compression! Those. If you spent half a day compressing some of your documents, then you will spend the same amount of time getting them out of the archive.

Result: the program can be used for small amounts of information, especially when the minimum size of the source file is important (for example, the file needs to be placed on a floppy disk or on a small flash drive). But again, it is impossible to guess the size of the compressed file in advance, and you may waste time on compression...

WinRar

The famous program in the post-Soviet space is installed on most computers. Probably, if she had not shown such good results, she would not have had so many fans. Below is a screenshot showing the compression settings, nothing special, except that the compression level was set to maximum.

Surprisingly, WinRar compressed the file in a few seconds, and the file size was reduced by 17 times. a very worthy result, considering that the time spent on processing is negligible. And the time to unpack the file is even less!

Result: An excellent program that shows some of the best results. During the compression settings, you can also specify the maximum archive size and the program will split it into several parts. This is very convenient for transferring a file from one computer to another on a flash drive or CD/DVD disk, when you cannot write the entire file to...

WinUha

A relatively young archivist. It cannot be called super-popular, but many users who often work with archives have an interest in it. And it’s no coincidence, because according to the developers of the archiver, its compression algorithm is stronger than that of RAR and 7Z.

In our small experiment, I would not say that this is so. It is possible that on some other data it will show much better results...

By the way, when installing, select English; in Russian, the program displays “cryakozabry”.

Result: a good program with an interesting compression algorithm. The time to process and create an archive is, of course, longer than WinRar, but for some types of data you can get a slightly higher compression ratio. Although, personally, I would not put much emphasis on this...

7Z

A very popular free archiver. Many argue that the compression ratio in 7z is even better than in WinRar. It is quite possible, but when compressed with the “Ultra” level on most files, it loses to WinRar.

Result: a good alternative to WinRar. Quite comparable compression ratio, good support for the Russian language, convenient integration into the Explorer context menu.

WinZip

Legendary, one of the most popular archivers ever. On the Internet, probably the most common archives are “ZIP”. And it’s no coincidence - despite the not-so-high compression ratio, the speed of operation is simply amazing. For example, Windows opens such archives as regular folders!

In addition, we should not forget that this archiver and compression format is much older than its newfangled competitors. And not everyone now has powerful computers that will allow them to quickly work with new formats. And the Zip format is supported by all modern archivers!

Answers:

Khailov Konstantin Yurievich:
Well, you bent it. If this were possible, films would be sold on 2 floppy disks.

Victor:
What video format? If it's already a compressed avi, then no compression will help. If in another MPEG-2, DV, etc., then you can try to compress the virtual with oak, but the output quality with the parameters you specified, when you want to cram 250 mb into 1.5 mb, will be simply disgusting. And you don’t need WinRar in this matter at all, because it’s useless. It can only be used to transfer large films that do not fit on 1 CD. You need to create an archive without compression and specify the size of the output files as 700 mb, and after transferring the files to another computer, indicate to WinRar the first of the received files and it will completely unpack everything. I don’t see any other use of WinRar in the video field.

Shurovik:
No way. The video is probably already compressed with a codec. But re-compression will have no effect.

D.A.E.M.O.N.:
Winrar won't help here. You can't compress a 250 MB video to that size.

Big_Aziz:
Well, you bent. There’s no way to compress it all. Yes, even if you compress it, it won’t be a film, but something that will only make you sick. Fantastic. If only all this could be compressed into acceptable quality. I wish everyone good luck in their experiments!

Alexeyslav:
Scientifically speaking, the information redundancy of such a file should be simply fantastic! (compression 166 times). However, this situation can only happen if there is one dot on the screen and the file is in RAW format (not compressed). This option is also in doubt. The maximum compression ratio for Winrar under ideal conditions is about 30-40 times and depends on the block size used in the compression algorithm. and here you need to compress it by 166 times, this is simply unthinkable... any mathematician would turn over in his grave upon hearing such numbers.

Oleg:
And if you meant “split into pieces the size of a floppy disk,” then simply indicate the size in the “Archive name and parameters” window at the bottom left “Split into volumes...”. I just can’t believe that the question is so... incorrect.

Vengant:
No way. This level of video compression does not exist.

Kolesnikov Valery:
I advise you to read literature on this topic in order to have an idea about these things and not ask such questions.

Sokol:
Friends, no matter how paradoxical it may be, I recently downloaded a video archive in rar format from the Internet, which weighed 2.5 MB. I thought it was a phone video. No matter how it is! I unzipped it, and there was a 10-minute video with amazing resolution. The unzipped video, in AVI format, weighed 102 megabytes. So I was wondering how this could be...

Virtual_Jack:
I'm also interested in the answer. I have a 4 Giga video, compressed into a 100-meter archive, without loss of quality.

I think each of us has more than once encountered the need to send a large file, say, by email, or dump it on an external drive. I will definitely not open America for anyone if I say that this can be done thanks to existing archivers, in particular, WinRar, which we will talk about today. However, not everyone knows about the various nuances that will help answer the question more efficiently and quickly: “how to compress in winrar?”

Archiving files using WinRar

The WinRar program is very simple, even a novice user can use it, everything in it is accessible and intuitive. The first thing you need to do is download the archiver on the Internet and then install it. Next, select the required file, say, we need to compress the folder in winrar. Right-click on it and look for the line “Add to archive”.

After this, a window automatically opens in which you need to select archiving parameters, archive format, etc., in principle, it is not necessary to change anything, you can leave it as is.

Please note that if you want to create an archive consisting of many parts (volumes), then at the very bottom, in the “Divide into volumes by size (in bytes)” column, you need to put the required number. If you need one file, then leave this line blank. Another nuance: in the rar format the file is compressed more strongly than in the zip format, which means it takes longer.

You can also set your own compression options using the Advanced tab. In it you will find the “Compression Options” button, and then select by tick what you need, for example, compression algorithm, compression of full graphics, etc.

Data protection from unauthorized access

It is noteworthy that, if necessary, you can protect the archived file from attacks. So, it is possible, without the correct indication of which there will be no unzipping. To do this, in the same settings window, go to the “Advanced” tab. There is a button “Set password”, click and enter the desired password. If you do not want to adjust any more parameters, click “OK”, thereby starting the archiving process.

Well, that’s all, I think that we have figured out the question “how to compress a file in winrar”. But the question of how to extract files from a WinRar archive is described in this . All this knowledge will allow you to significantly save space on your computer or external media, as well as transfer large files on the Internet. From now on, compressing a video in winrar or any other file is not a problem for you at all.

Video to help

WinRAR is a popular archiver in *.rar and *.zip formats for Windows operating systems. There are versions of the program for other modern platforms, including mobile ones. WinRAR is considered the best archiver due to its speed and high compression ratio.

WinRAR has several levels of file compression. Using the right settings, you can compress a file as much as possible using WinRAR, significantly reducing the disk space it takes up or increasing the speed of its transfer over the Internet. It is also possible to split one file into several smaller ones in order to send them separately (for example, via email, where the size of attached files is often limited).

Quick navigation through the article

Creating an archive

In order to create an archive using WinRAR and set the maximum compression level for it, you must:

• Open Windows Explorer;
• Select the files that need to be archived;
• Select them with the mouse and right-click on any of them;
• Select the menu item “Add to archive...”;
• In the window that opens, enter the name of the archive in the appropriate field;
• Click the “Browse” button and specify the folder to save the archive;
• Click on the “Compression method” element;
• Select the “Maximum” compression method from the drop-down list;
• Check the box “Test files after packaging” and activate other options if necessary;

Creating multiple volumes

In order to create an archive with maximum compression and division into volumes of a certain size, you must:

• Open Windows Explorer;
• Select the required files;
• Right-click on one of them and select “Add to archive...”
• Set archive creation parameters by selecting the maximum compression level;
• Set other necessary parameters;
• In the “Divide into volumes by size” field, enter a number corresponding to the size of the volumes being created and select a unit of measurement for the size of information (Megabyte or Gigabyte) from the drop-down list on the right;
• Click the “OK” button and wait for the operation to complete.

To unpack the created multi-volume archive you need to:

• Place all archive volumes in one folder;
• Right-click on volume “00”;
• Select the menu item “Extract to current folder”;
• Wait for unpacking to complete.

During the operation, all archive volumes will be automatically unpacked. There is no need to select each volume individually.

In our age of high technology, there are more and more users of the World Wide Web every day. Many of them are advanced users, and some are just beginning their acquaintance with the limitless possibilities of the Internet. Regular browsing on the Internet means working with various files. One of the main tools for working with files is their archiving. The article will tell you how to archive files in zip and compress the file to a smaller size.

What is archiving?

File archiving is a procedure in which the original size of any file is compressed into smaller volumes, while the quality of the files and the information they contain does not deteriorate or change. For example, if you have a text file (say, a book) of 1.5 MB in size, then using a special archiver program you can easily compress this volume to 150 KB. The benefit is obvious: the zipped file takes up much less space (in this case, 7 times), and it can also be sent by mail as one file.

Archiving can also be called packaging files into one element (folder or database). Let's give an example: let's say you need to send a large number of photographs to a friend. If you send them by email, you will have to attach each photo separately. This process will take a lot of time, because loading of each image will begin only after loading the previous one. It will be much easier to send all the photos in one folder, and it is the archiver programs that are able to pack all the files into one element.

What is it used for?

The main reason for using archivers (programs that compress or pack files) is not only to save time when sending files, space on your hard drive, but also convenience in storing data. The advantage is that archived objects allow you to save a huge number of files in one folder, while the original elements can be safely deleted from the computer’s memory, because at the right time you can simply unpack the archive folder and use the files. This way you can save a significant amount of hard drive space, the main thing is to know how to archive a file in zip.

Overview of archiving programs

The most popular program is WinRar, it is built into Windows operating systems

And it is considered very effective in terms of the ratio of compression ratio to speed. It saves files in RAR or ZIP format. The advantage of this program is the possibility of additional protection in the form of an electronic signature for the archived folder, but there is also a drawback: WinRar is a paid program. Below is an effective way to archive a file in zip format.

There is another equally convenient and practical archiver called 7-Zip. Unlike the first program, it is free and can be downloaded from the official website. 7-Zip is a very simple tool even for those who are not computer friendly.

What is the difference between archivers and each other?

There are many different programs that archive files. They differ in that each of them has its own methods for compressing and storing objects. For this reason, their effectiveness may vary, because one archiver is capable of compressing a file by 5 times, and another - by 10. Another difference is the format into which the archiver converts the desired file. Also, each program has its own design, so when adding an element to the archive using one program, we will see an icon that will be different from the icon of any other archiver program.

How to archive a file in zip format?

First of all, you need to clarify which archiver program is installed on your computer. To do this, you need to right-click on any file and in the list of actions that opens, find the add to archiver function. If the "Add to archive" function is present in the context menu, this means that you have WinRar installed.

The next step is to select one or more files to archive. To do this, you need to select all the elements with the mouse and right-click to open the Windows context menu. In the menu list, find the “Add to archive” item and click on it. This action should open the WinRar archiver program. In the archiving menu, you need to select settings in which you can specify the desired degree of file compression. It is worth considering that choosing the “maximum compression” method takes a little more time than the usual or high-speed methods.

After setting the compression settings, you can proceed to the window where you need to specify the name of the folder and the location of future archived files. Then you need to start the archiving process using the "ok" menu item. The zipped items will appear in the specified location: a folder or just a compressed file.

How to open a zipped zip file? It’s very simple: you need to select the archive folder by left-clicking, and then call up the action menu of the archiver program itself by right-clicking. A small window will appear with options, you need to select “extract to current folder” or “extract to...” depending on where you would like to save the extracted file.

Archiving Features

We answered the question “how to archive a file in zip?”, now let’s learn about some of the features of archiving. For example, when archiving photo, audio or video files, very little compression occurs in size. With text formats the situation is different. Let's look at how to archive a pdf file in zip. You can use a standard archiver, or you can use various online tools to convert a file from one format to any other, including zip.

How to archive files in zip on MAC OS?

The methods for archiving files are slightly different from those used in Windows. You can create an archive folder on an Apple computer as follows: select files, then right-click to bring up the action menu and select “compress objects” in the window that opens. A folder with zipped files will appear in the same folder where the original files were located.

In order to unzip files, you need to install special software that allows you to unzip files of any format. Then you need to select the archive folder, right-click, and use the installed program to unpack the necessary elements. One of the best programs freely available in the AppStore is Unarchiver.