Zipping a big folder

[crazychicken]

I am trying to zip a big folder with lots of subdirectories. The windows compression ("send to zip file") keep complaining (and quitting) every time it comes across an empty directory. Is there a way to tell it to ignore empty directories? Or do you guys use another zip program (like 7-zip) to do this kind of big job?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Modelworks]

I use winrar but it is only free for 30 days.

I would switch to 7zip for compression, way more options than windows zip. Compresses smaller as well.
http://www.7-zip.org/

 

[crazychicken]

Why does windows provide such a terrible option? It'd be one thing if it just didn't give you lots of choices - but in this case it plain doesn't work!

 

[seemingly random]

I just created and compressed the following directory tree:

ed1/ed2a/ed3a
ed1/ed2b

No files, ed2b and ed3a were empty.

WinXP "SendTo:Compressed (zipped) Folder" on ed1 completed successfully. Maybe there is another problem. Explorer is infamous for failing with what it thinks is too long of a filename - even if it's not. Try compressing the empty dir including one or two levels up as a test.

 

[Nizbot]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I use winrar but it is only free for 30 days.

I would switch to 7zip for compression, way more options than windows zip. Compresses smaller as well.
http://www.7-zip.org/

WinRAR is actually freeware. At least the version I have, it says it will expire in 30 days but it never does. It's been like this for awhile now.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: Nizology

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I use winrar but it is only free for 30 days.

I would switch to 7zip for compression, way more options than windows zip. Compresses smaller as well.
http://www.7-zip.org/

WinRAR is actually freeware. At least the version I have, it says it will expire in 30 days but it never does. It's been like this for awhile now.

no, its shareware. you are supposed to buy it after 30 days.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze


no, its shareware. you are supposed to buy it after 30 days.

Yup, they're just nice enough to not disable the program after 30 days.

I use 7Zip for archiving. Open source, and no nags. It also has a comprehensive list of files it can work with.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze


no, its shareware. you are supposed to buy it after 30 days.

Yup, they're just nice enough to not disable the program after 30 days.

I use 7Zip for archiving. Open source, and no nags. It also has a comprehensive list of files it can work with.

winrar supports several different compression formats - including older ones like cpio and lha. 7zip supports a few more. I would only install 7zip except it can't read some (possibly damaged) rar files that winrar can.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
I would only install 7zip except it can't read some (possibly damaged) rar files that winrar can.

I've heard that before, but so far 7Zip has opened everything I've thrown at it.

 

[armstrda]

7Zip FTW!

 

[manko]

Winrar or 7zip, especially for long or foreign language filenames. I end up using Winrar more often though since I got an older fully free version a while back from a free promotion.