Compression, Advanced

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Compression, Advanced

 

Create self-extracting Zip files: If ticked then a self-extracting Zip file will be created. A self-extracting Zip file is an executable program, that when run, will extract its contents. The benefit is that a 3rd party Zip program is not required to uncompress the files. Please note that as the self-extracting executable is 32-bit, it is limited to roughly 2GB in size (it's not exactly 2GB as it depends on the executable extractor included in the file). This is true even for 64-bit versions of SyncBackPro and SyncBackSE. This option is not available when using LZMA2, XZ or Zstandard compression and when the header is being encrypted.

 

Create a multi-part Zip file with each part having the maximum size of…:  Setting a value means you want a split zip file with each part being no more than the size specified. These separate parts can then be copied manually to an FTP server, cloud, etc. An important point to note about split Zip files is that they cannot be modified once created (this is a limitation of the compression format, and not SyncBack). The existing Zip file will be automatically deleted and rebuilt. For this reason you may wish to use a Fast Backup profile that does full and incremental backups. Note that the naming standard used by SyncBack is not compatible with some Zip programs. See the section below for more details. This option is not available when using LZMA2 compression or the header is being encrypted.

 

Filename extension: This option is only available when compressing each file to its own file. Enter the filename extension to use for the destination compressed files. By default '.zip' is used as all the compression methods use the Zip format (except LZMA which uses 7z). Note that although the extension '.bwt' is used with the BWT compression algorithm the file format is actually Zip. It has not been changed for backwards compatibility reasons.

 

Store the filenames in UTF8 format: WinZip 12 and newer compression utilities support storing filenames in a special format (UTF8). This allows for non-English filenames, e.g. Chinese, to be correctly recognized. If you are encrypting filenames in the Zip file, or using LZMA2, XZ or Zstandard compression, then UTF8 is enforced.

 

Temporary directory: By default, temporary files produced during compression are stored in your standard Windows temporary directory. You can however change this using this option. For example, you may be using a small RAM disk as your temporary directory and so when using compression you would like the temporary files stored on your RAM disk. It is recommended you leave this setting empty so that the default temporary directory is used. You can use variables.

 

Number of files to compress/uncompress in parallel: When using multi-zip compression, i.e. all files go into their own Zip file, then you can greatly increase performance by compressing/uncompressing files in parallel (at the same time) instead of one at a time. Keep in mind that as you increase this value the memory and CPU consumption will increase. If the value is too high it will instead slow down your profile. This option is only available when copying to another drive and not with FTP, cloud, etc.

 

 

Split Zip Files

 

warning

There is no standard way to name split Zip files. The naming standard used by SyncBack for split Zip files is different from that used by WinZip, WinRAR, and possibly other compression utilities. To open split Zip files you may need to rename the Zip files. For example, the following files may be created by SyncBack:

 

Test.zip

Test.z02

Test.z03

 

If you attempt to open the Zip file using WinZip or WinRAR it will incorrectly report that the Zip file is corrupt. If you wish to open the Zip file using WinZip or WinRAR you must rename the files as follows:

 

Rename test.zip to test.z01

Rename test.z03 to test.zip (i.e. change the extension of the last file to .zip)

 

If you are using the 7-Zip archiver then you must be using version 16 or newer.

 

 

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