How to consolidate many small files?

[FreshJR]

I have many directories that are filled with many small files on a backup drive.

These directories are archives of files just serving as a backup.

How do I consolidate these files? Winrar, zip, 7zip, something else?

Some directories are 128gb. I am a little hesitant creating 128gb rars.

Is there preferred single file archive format.

(Ideally if part of the archive experiences data corruption, the remainder of the individual files would still work be accessible instead of being toast.)

 

[corkyg]

Look up concatenate files.

 

[TheELF]

The best thing you can do is .iso,make every directory a separate iso,iso files are mountable in windows so you can access the files without having to decompress (into temp) or anything.
mkisofs.exe is a commandline tool to create iso files from archives but, if you don't mind the cost,you can also use pretty much any professional cd/dvd recording software,most support writing iso files.
WinCDEmu let's you mount isos in windows,it even comes in a portable version (if you don't have a version of windows that does it anyways)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I have many directories that are filled with many small files on a backup drive.

These directories are archives of files just serving as a backup.

How do I consolidate these files? Winrar, zip, 7zip, something else?

Some directories are 128gb. I am a little hesitant creating 128gb rars.

Is there preferred single file archive format.

(Ideally if part of the archive experiences data corruption, the remainder of the individual files would still work be accessible instead of being toast.)

The bolded part puts the kibosh on most archiving/consolidation options.

Why do you want to do this? What problem are you trying to address?