The purpose of creating a zip file. ZIP - where to download, how to install, unpack and pack the archive

When you work for personal computer, very often there is a need to reduce the size of a file in order to save space on your hard drive or removable storage. For example, you need to copy a file from one computer to another using a floppy disk. Or do you need to send a large file via e-mail. If you reduce its size, you save a lot of time, and if the Internet is not unlimited, then money. IN similar situations the best solution is to create a compressed file. How to create an archive? This is exactly what this file is called.

Definition

The archive is single file, which can contain many other files in a compressed form to save memory. To work with such data, there are special software products, called archivers. With their help, you can pack files, extract them, and also view the contents of these same archives. The process of compressing and packaging information is called archiving, and unpacking is called unarchiving.

Formats

There are several compressed file formats. The most common are RAR, ZIP, TAR, CAB. It is these three letters that become the extension of the compressed file. The format type affects the compression ratio. For example, a RAR archive weighs less than a ZIP archive. The format of the packed files also plays a role in efficiency. Some can be compressed by only two times, while others can be compressed by four or more. There are formats that are not compressed at all. How to create an archive using such a program?

Most convenient means is famous archivist called WinRAR. With its help it is possible to create both ZIP and RAR archives. And it can view and unpack compressed files of other formats without any problems.

Sequencing

In order to answer the question of how to create RAR archive, you need to do some simple operations. To begin with, stand out necessary files. If there are a lot of them, then it is convenient to use mouse selection while holding down CTRL key on keyboard. If you press CTRL+A, absolutely all files in this directory will be selected. If this method is somehow inconvenient, you can use the “File” menu of the archiver program. You must select the “Add” item, then in the window that appears, enter the name that the user wants to assign to the created archive. Here you can select the format: ZIP or RAR. The second one is installed by default because it compresses much better and most often there is no need to change it. In the case when you need to transfer the archive to another user, it is better to ask him in advance if he has a program that can work with the selected file format.

Multi-volume archives

Floppy disks are used less and less, but are still found. And if you need to write on them large archive, then it is created multi-volume. It consists of parts called volumes. How to create an archive of this type? To do this, you need to select 1475500 in the “Volume Size” section. This number means the size of the floppy disk. In this case, it is better to check the “For recovery” box to be able to restore the archive if suddenly the data in it is somehow damaged. After all, a floppy disk is not the most reliable storage device.

Self-extracting archives

It happens that on the computer compressed file unpacked even if special program not installed. How to create a self-extracting archive? To do this, select the files to be packaged, then click right key mouse, you need to select “Add to archive”. Important: this item is only available when installed. Then the format is also selected. In the parameters you need to indicate that this will be an SFX archive. All that remains is to click on the “OK” button and everything will be ready.

As can be seen from the above, the answer to the question of how to create an archive is not difficult. All you need is the appropriate software, a little patience and straight hands. But the consequences of acquiring skills are only positive: saving memory space, more free time when transferring files, convenience. You can also teach other beginners. After all, it will also be useful for them to know how to create an archive.

Almost every computer today has an archiver installed - a program that can compress and decompress files. Windows users systems for unknown reason give preference WinRAR archiver. Actually, I don't mind of this product. It has a lot of advantages and one big drawback - it is paid. Today we will look at a program that is excellent free alternative WinRAR. We will talk about the program - 7-Zip. During the review process, we will create our own unpacking archive, and also set a password for our archive. And finally, let's try to compare: who compresses files better - 7-Zip or WinRAR.

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Before we start talking about 7-Zip, let's find out what an archiver is and why it is needed. An archiver is a program that is used to reduce the size of files. Today it is customary to archive almost all types of files with the exception of multimedia (music, video, graphics). In the case of the latter, it is a different story. The fact is that modern multimedia files are already compressed material. Only their size is reduced by other programs.

Another use of archivers is to combine several files into one. For example, my article consists of a document in Word format and several graphic files. I decided to forward the article to a friend. You can, of course, attach all the files separately to an email, but you can simply add all the components of my article to the archive and send just one file by email, which will also be smaller in size compared to the non-archived version.

Actually, that's all. The archive has been created. In my case, the result was an archive called AIMP.zip. If you carefully examined the context menu, you probably noticed that it is possible to create an archive in 7z format. This format is a product of the developers of the 7-Zip archiver. His main characteristic is a higher compression ratio (compared to ZIP and even RAR). However, archive in this format It only makes sense if you are 100 percent sure that the recipient of the archive will subsequently have something to unpack it with.

Let me give you an example. operating system Windows XP immediately after installation is able to unpack archives into ZIP format, however, if you do not install additional software, which is our glorious 7-Zip archiver, then opening an archive in 7z format becomes impossible.

How to put a password on the archive?

Often it is necessary to implement at least minimal information protection. Despite the fact that today there are many programs for cracking archive passwords, password protection in many cases turns out to be an effective remedy against unauthorized access.

In addition, I would like to note that if your password contains numbers, letters, both lowercase and uppercase, and is longer than 10 characters, an attacker will need a lot of effort to guess the password.

To set a password for the archive, we will need to create it again. However, we will do this using the 7-Zip Manager. To open it, click on the “Start” button, then “All Programs” and look for the item with the same name as the program name.

Click on it and select “7-Zip” from the drop-down list File Manager" A new window will open.

We see the archiver control center. A significant part of the window is occupied by the most common file and folder explorer on your computer. I suggest going to the same folder where we previously created the archive and creating the archive again.

Also select all the files and click on big button at the top of the Add screen.

In a new window we get the opportunity to configure archiving.

I suggest just setting the value in the “Archive format” drop-down list to ZIP, and setting the compression level to “Maximum”. Now pay attention to the “Encryption” section. This is where the password is entered.

When you finish entering, just click the “Ok” button at the bottom of the window. The archive has been created and is password protected.

How to split a file into several parts?

I would like to tell you about one more useful function 7-Zip archiver. Suppose there is a need to create an archive and write it to a very ordinary three-inch floppy disk.

Of course, these same floppy disks in our advanced age high technology are an anachronism. But the situation has so developed that there are many companies and organizations that have computers that are not the latest, equipped with three-inch floppy drives.
The main problem with floppy disks is their capacity. The fact is that they allow you to write to yourself no more than 1.44 megabytes. What to do if your archive is large? Break it into parts, each of which will exceed 1.44 MB.

To do this, we again create our archive using “7-Zip File Manager”. Click the “Add” button and in the already familiar window, turn your attention to the “Split into volumes of size (in bytes)” drop-down list.

Here we select the first item, which is to split the archive for the floppy drive. Click the “Ok” button and find that two files have appeared.

Each of these files can easily fit on a floppy disk. To then assemble and unpack the whole thing, it will be enough to copy the files from the floppy disks into one folder. Please note that to collect files you must have installed archiver 7-Zip.

In conclusion, I would like to say: pay as much attention as possible to demons. paid programs. Often, freely distributed software has much greater functionality, and it is almost always less demanding on computer hardware resources.

Best regards, Gosha Computer.

How to create a Zip archive? It happens that you need to create a ZIP archive. Well, you never know? Maybe you are studying somewhere by correspondence, and they have a requirement that you send work only in a ZIP archive. So what now, look for and install this archiver as well? How to quickly create WinRAR archive and We have already learned how to create a self-extracting WinRAR archive. How long will it take to find a new archiver? How much does it cost to install it and study it? And we need a ZIP archive urgently. What to do?

And you don’t need to do anything. You have everything you need to create a ZIP archive. We can do all this using the WinRAR archiver.

How to createZIP archive using the programWinRAR?

  • Collect all the files necessary for archiving into one folder;
  • Name the folder as you need (preferably with Latin letters, otherwise the archive may not be opened by the person to whom you send it);
  • Click on the created folder right click mouse, and select the item from the drop-down menu Add to archive…

A window will open Archive name and parameters . Set the switch to ZIP and press the button OK. You don't need to touch anything else.

This is how quickly and easily we created ZIP archive. As you noticed, its extension will now be not .rar, but .zip.

In the last article we talked about. Now we will talk about creating archives. If you don’t know how to create an archive, you will need an archiver program, such as 7zip, and this article.

As we have already said, archives can solve several problems at once. By archiving a group of files, you get an archive that is just one file. Such a file is much easier to transfer over the network than a whole bunch separate files small size. Send such a file by email or post it on file hosting won't be difficult.

In addition, when archiving they can be used special algorithms data compression. Thanks to compression, the created archive can have significantly smaller size, how source files. This allows you to speed up archive transfer over the network or save space on your . For example, if you store a lot of documents on disk that you don’t currently use, but you can’t delete them either, it makes sense to archive them with compression.

How to create an archive using the 7zip program

In order to create an archive you will need an archiver program. Most popular archivers are paid programs, for example WinRar. But there are also free programs. One of the best free programs archivers is 7zip.

There are several ways to create an archive using the 7zip program. The simplest and in a fast way creating an archive is to launch archiving via the context menu.

Select the files that need to be archived and right-click the context menu. In the menu that opens, select 7zip. There is whole line commands that will start archiving selected files in various modes.

Let's take a closer look at all the commands that can be executed from the 7zip context menu:

Add to archive– add selected files to the archive with the ability to manually configure all archiving parameters. After launch, a window will open in which you can select the archive format, compression level and other parameters.

Compress and send by email– similar to the previous command, but in this case, after archiving is completed, the file will be sent by email.

Add to "Folder Name". 7z– the selected files will be archived into a 7z archive with default settings.

Compress to “Folder Name”. 7z and send by email– the selected files will be archived in a 7z archive with default settings and sent by email.

Teams "Add to "Folder Name". zip" and "Compress to "Folder Name". zip and send by email" work similarly to the previous two, but in this case a regular zip archive is used as the archive format.

You can also create an archive from the 7zip program interface. To do this, launch 7zip File Manager, select the necessary files and click on the “Add” button. After this, a window with archiving parameters will open.