How to create an archive yourself

When you work for a personal computer, very often you need to reduce the size of a file to save space on your hard drive or removable drive. For example, you need to copy a file from one computer to another using a floppy disk. Or you need to send a large file by e-mail. If you reduce its size, it saves a lot of time, and if the Internet is not unlimited, then money. In such situations, the best solution is to create a compressed file. How to create an archive? This is the name of this file.

Definition

The archive is a 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 view the contents of these same archives. The process of compressing and packaging information is called archiving, and unpacking is called decompression.

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, RAR-archive weighs less than ZIP. The format of packaged files is also effective. Some can shrink only twice, while others - four or more. There are formats that do not shrink at all. How to create an archive using this program?

The most convenient tool is a well-known archiver called WinRAR. With its help it is possible to create both ZIP and RAR-archives. And compressed files of other formats, it can be viewed and unpacked without problems.

Sequencing

In order to answer the question of how to create an archive of RAR, you need to do some simple operations. First, the necessary files are selected. If there are many of them, it is convenient to use the selection with the mouse with the CTRL key pressed on the keyboard. If you press CTRL + A, then absolutely all files in this directory are selected. If such a method is somewhat inconvenient, then you can use the "File" menu of the program-archiver. Select "Add", then in the appeared window enter the name that the user wants to assign to the created archive. Here you can choose the format: ZIP or RAR. The second is installed by default, because it compresses much better, and there is often no need to change it. In the case where you want to transfer the archive to another user, it's better to ask in advance if it has a program that can work with the selected file format.

Multi-volume archives

Floppy disks are used less and less, but still occur. And if you need to write on them a large archive, then create it multi-volume. It consists of parts called tomes. How to create an archive of this type? To do this, select 1475500 in the Volume Size section. This number indicates the size of the diskette. In this case, it is better to tick the "For recovery" field to restore the archive, if the data in it is damaged in some way. After all, the diskette is not the most reliable drive.

Self-extracting archives

It happens that on a computer a compressed file is unpacked, even if a special program is not installed. How to create a self-extracting archive? To do this, select the files for packaging, then click the right mouse button, select "Add to archive". Important: this item is only available when the WinRAR archiver is installed . Then the format is also selected. In the parameters, you need to specify that this will be an SFX archive. It remains only 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. You need only the appropriate software, a little patience and direct hands. But the consequences of acquiring skills are only positive: saving space in memory, more free time when transferring files, convenience. And you can teach other newcomers. After all, it will also be useful for them to know how to create an archive.