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[Juanca]

I am planning to do some backup of my personal stuff. I have a load of pictures, music (mostly mp3 files), games (:amused, docs etc....
I have already done backups in the past but never tried compressing them.
So here are my questions, please enlighten me:cheesy:,

What is the best file extension to do this? I read 7zip is the best for compressing. but what about .zip, .rar, etc?
should i separate types of files and make three or four different files (I mean one for only pictures, one with only documents, etc?
Is there a limit for compressing info in one file (limit of megs or number of files?
Is there any risk of loosing some info on the compression process and after decompressing not finding some data? (urban legend?)

Is this useful? or just if you have the means to burn a bunch of dvds with uncompressed data it is far better.

[GTX2GvO]

Well, it also depends on how strong your system is.

If you have a REALLY powerful one,then KGB archiver might be interesting.
(not to be mistaken with the spy/ad ware KGB)

if you don't have the requirements for KGB, then 7zip would be a good second.
Still needs a good machine, but not as much as KGB.

Also need compatibility with a huge amount of other file compression techniques?
Then you should go for WinRAR. Supports ALMOST all extensions.
(.KGB isn't one of them....)
This is the best one of the Very Well Known Compressors.

As a last suggestion I would advise you to take a look @ WinZIP.
OK, I know. It not even closely as good as any of the above archivers, but it DOES have the BEST windows integration.
(as in, windows XP and above can open .zip files as if they are just folders)

Hope this will help you in making YOUR decision.
I just consider this as just hints and tips.

[_r.u.s.s.]

i'd bet 10 bucks that you wouldn't notice the difference

it doesn't matter, get any free 7zip and there you go

but about mp3s and jpg images, they are already compressed files in the best way the kind of file can be compressed, so don't expect much less size from those

[Kugerfang]

I knew the KGB was watching.... preparing.....

[The Fifth Horseman]

WinRar is fine for most things I do.
If I really need a better compression, I stick to 7Zip. It's memory requirements are ungodly, though - at least 1 GB of RAM is recommended, preferably even more.

[Scatty]

Well KGB Archiver claims to have much superior compression over WinRar or 7zip or any others of them, but when I ran a test by compressing a CD ISO with KGB and WinRar, the latter one actually left KGB too far behind, so go figure.
I would recommend just WinRar, it is easy to use, can compress very good, and can put a recovery record of up to 10% of the archive space into the archive, to restore data if the archive was damaged. But if you really need every squeezed inch of saved space, then WinRar is not the optimum yet.

[D4NG3R]

Originally Posted by Juanca

I am planning to do some backup of my personal stuff. I have a load of pictures, music (mostly mp3 files), games (:amused, docs etc....
I have already done backups in the past but never tried compressing them.
So here are my questions, please enlighten me:cheesy:,

What is the best file extension to do this? I read 7zip is the best for compressing. but what about .zip, .rar, etc?
should i separate types of files and make three or four different files (I mean one for only pictures, one with only documents, etc?
Is there a limit for compressing info in one file (limit of megs or number of files?
Is there any risk of loosing some info on the compression process and after decompressing not finding some data? (urban legend?)

Is this useful? or just if you have the means to burn a bunch of dvds with uncompressed data it is far better.

Im back-upping my pc atm im using my trusty old winrar
Works perfectly (it calculated how mutch smaller it will go:
423.21gb -> 292.211gb )
Takes about an hour'n a half, (special usb port, instead of normal 500mb sec (usb 2.0) i have one that goes 1.1gb a sec (sometimes called 2.5 but it isnt), its just a better usb port/software )

[Japo]

For system files there's PageDefrag:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897426.aspx

It's supposed to take care of some files that are open for exclusive access during Windows operation and so can't supposedly be defragmented. When started it tells you how many fragments these are broken into. If you then choose to defrag them it will do so at the following computer start when Windows hasn't opened them yet.

However JkDefrag for one does defragment all those files all right during normal Windows operation, so I've never used PageDefrag to defragment, just to check that these files aren't fragmented. I don't think JkDefrag is the only that can do this since it's based on Microsoft's APIs--I wouldn't use it if it wasn't--, but at least you can run PageDefrag to check these system files. Should they get fragmented, performance would go down the drain.

By the way to discriminate which files to defrag instead of the whole disc, I use Contig:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897428.aspx

[Juanca]

Great, all this info. All this makes me wonder what are your best system tools combination?

Until today i was only working with

Easy cleaner 2.0
and windows defragment tool
(but i will change to the ones suggested)

anything else?
what is your best system tools combination, and how frequently do you run this programs?

[The Fifth Horseman]

you don't need any 'registry defrag' if you have a good defragmenting tool

Defragmenting the HDD contents doesn't have much to do with defragmenting the contents of registry hives.
First use CCleaner, then RegCompact.NET.

A clean and defragmented system registry gives a slight increase of Windows startup speed.