WinRAR is a trialware file archiver utility for Windows, developed by Eugene Roshal of win.rar. The self-extractor can execute commands, such as running a specified program before or after self-extraction); Support for. GHacks Tech News. Dinner and a Movie is the horrorcore rappers first disc for Tech N9nes Strange Music, the label that helped. I got the zip file in es file explorer, but I cannot get it to open. Can ya help a brutha?. Most just download Kodi from the Google Playstore. Label: Island Def Jam/Goodfellas Ent.
If you’re a file hoarder, file compression is something you absolutely must know about. Although storage technology continues to improve at a rapid rate, efficiency is never a bad thing.
Not to mention, many of our file standards today dwarf those of the past—the 128 kbps MP3s we used to download on Napster have now been replaced with FLACs, where a single song can be the size of an entire MP3 album.
Many of us have files that we don’t want toget rid of but also don’t need immediate, dynamic access to. These can bephotos, videos, music, and much more. Creating an archive of these files cancut down on used disk space which can, in turn, result in better performance.It can also save your pockets—your 1 TB external hard drive can feel closer to2 TB if you archive properly!
Learning to compress your files isn’t veryhard, but what about all of those archive formats? Compressing files puts themin a “box” of a single file, but that file can have so many differentextensions: ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ—what do these all mean? Surely there’s adifference, right?
Of course there is! If there’s one thing PC excels at, it’s giving you options, and when it comes to archiving your files, you have many of them. In this article, let’s discuss the differences between the many popular compressed file archive formats.
What is a ZIP archive?
WinZip is one of the first file archivers thatgained widespread popularity, and it allows users to compress files as a ZIParchive.
Here are the main differences that the ZIP format has over other archive file types:
- Files can be stored withoutcompression.
- Each file within the archive iscompressed separately. This allows for the use of different algorithms and ahigher compression ratio but comes with the drawback of a larger archive filesize when compressing a large number of small files.
- ZIP’s password-based encryptionwas criminally weak up until 2003 (when AES was added).
- Up until extensions came around, therewas a 4 GB hard limit to everything: uncompressed file size, compressed filesize, and total archive size.
- ZIP compression is faster and notas CPU-intensive as many of today’s popular alternatives.
- ZIP is supported by the majorityof Linux distributions and all versions of Windows (since XP) out of the box.
What is a RAR archive?
WinRAR became famous for its never ending “trial” period. After 30 days, you’d begin getting a popup in WinRAR stating that your trial had ended, which you could then just… close. RAR, named after its developer, Eugene Roshal, is an incredibly popular archive format today.
Here’s how it differs from the crowd:
- RAR allows for the modularization of archives into volumes, which is an efficient way to store massive files.
- You can alternatively compress files into a single block (solid format).
- AES encryption is standard.
- Archives can be protected by a password.
- Compression of audio files is especially efficient (up to 90%).
- RAR archives can be embedded within other files. Did you know you can hide a RAR archive in a JPEG?
- Many RAR extraction routines have been rewritten as open-source software.
- RAR has an overall better compression ratio when compared to ZIP, its biggest competitor.
What is a 7Z archive?
Unsurprisingly, the 7Z archive format wasintroduced by Windows application 7-Zip. That was all the way back in 1999!7-Zip and a library to read the 7Z file format are both publicly availableunder the GNU Lesser General Public License.
Here are some of 7Z’s features:
- 7Z has an architecture that isboth modular and open, which allows compressing, converting, and encryptingfiles via various stacking methods.
- Files can be compressed at ratiosaround 2–10%.
- AES encryption is standard.
- All of the archive headers arecompressed. Archive headers store information about how to handle blocks ofdata within the archive.
- Extremely large (billions of GB)files are supported.
- Supported compression algorithms(LZMA/LZMA2, PPMd, BZip2) can benefit from parallel computing on modernmulti-core CPUs.
What is a TAR archive?
TAR is the most popular archive file format onUnix and Unix-like systems. It’s important to understand that each TAR is onlyan archive file. It’s used in tandem with GZ, which is used to compress filesand has no archiving capabilities itself. Together, they create a“tarball” file (TAR.GZ format).
TAR enables receiving compressed HTTPresponses and sending compressed requests, allowing compression ratios to reachup to 80%. This archive format is most often used for backup and distributingcontent across Linux flavors. TAR archives preserve group permissions, dates,directory structures, and other important file system information.
As you can see, each archive format has itspros and cons—choose wisely depending on the type of files you’re compressingand the purpose of your archive. Compression ratio, speed, and security are allworth taking into account, and there’s a time and place for each of theseformats!
by Martin Brinkmann on July 28, 2014 in Internet - 4 comments
Broken, damaged or corrupt archives can be quite annoying. It does not really matter if an archive that you have created locally is not working anymore, or if you have downloaded Megabytes or even Gigabytes of data from the Internet only to realize that one or multiple of the files of the archive are either damaged or missing completely.
That does not mean that the data cannot be repaired or extracted anymore. Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to recover the archive fully, or at least partially.
When you try to extract a broken RAR archive, you will receive a prompt requesting that you select the next file in line manually from the local system, or receive the error 'CRC failed in file name' in the end.
This is a dead giveaway that a volume is missing or damaged, and that some of the extracted files may be corrupt or even non-present as a consequence.
When you receive that message, you have a couple of options to proceed.
1. Recovery Records
When you create a new archive using WinRAR, you can add so called recovery records to it. To do so, you simply check the 'Add Recovery Record' box when the archive name and parameters dialog appears.
You can only do so if you are creating a multi-file RAR or RAR5 archive, and not when you use ZIP as the archive format or want to create a single file only.
The recovery information increases the archives size by 3% by default. This means basically that you will be able to restore up to 3% of missing or damaged data by default.
You can switch to the advanced tab to modify the percentage to either increase or decrease it.
The recovery record is added to the directory the archive is created in. Each file begins with rebuilt so that you always know that this is a recovery file and not part of the original archive.
To recovery the RAR file, you open it in WinRAR, right-click all archives, and select the repair option from the menu. WinRAR will pick up the recovery volume or volumes automatically and use them to repair the archive and add the fixed files to the system.
![Tech Tech](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126270965/958920105.jpeg)
2. PAR Files
So called Parity files offer a second option. They are often used on Usenet, but come in handy for backups and in all other situations where you need to move large archives to another location.
What makes PAR files great is the fact that you can repair any part of an archive using them. As long as they are at least equal in size to the damaged part, they can be used to repair the archive.
If you have never heard about PAR or PAR2 files before, check out my guide that explains what they do and how you can use them.
You may need to use software to make use of PAR files. Some Usenet clients ship with their own implementation, so that it is not necessary in this case to install a different program to handle the files.
My favorite Usenet client Newsbin for instance supports parity files for example and will download them intelligently whenever they are present and required to extract archives (which it can also extract automatically).
Standalone programs that you may want to consider using are MultiPar or QuickPar.
3. Extract the archive partially
If you don't have access to recovery volumes or parity files, you may still extract the archive partially to your system. This works best if the archive is damaged at the end as you can extract all contents up that point in this case.
You need to enable the 'Keep broken files' option on the extraction path and options prompt to do so. If you don't, WinRAR won't keep partially extracted file contents on the disk.
4. Redownload
Last but not least, re-downloading missing or corrupt files may also resolve the issue. This works best if you have downloaded the files faster than they were uploaded for example, or when the original uploader noticed that files were corrupt and uploaded new copies which you can then download to your system to complete the archive.
You may also ask for others to fill the missing or corrupt files, or seek out another destination to get the full copy. On the Usenet, it is sometimes the case that files are corrupt when you are using one provider, but not corrupt when you switch the provider.
That's why some users use so called fillers, secondary Usenet providers that are used whenever the primary provider fails to provide access to a file.
Have another option? Add it as a comment below and share it with everyone.
Now Read: How to pick the right Usenet Provider
How to repair and extract broken RAR archives
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Can't extract a RAR archive because it is corrupt or files are missing? Find out how to extract it anyway, or repair it even before you do.
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