Not so long ago, the word "gigabyte" was spoken by computer lovers with respect. It seemed that such a volume of information would never be available to the average user. DVDs soon shattered this misconception. Today, an elegant 500 GB external hard drive is no longer surprising, and in some users' homes you can find a terabyte hard drive. However, the need for efficient archivers still exists, as the volume of information flow grows faster than the ability to store data.
What are archiving programs for and how can they help to cope with a large amount of data? The name clearly implies that programs create archives of data in much the same way as a person puts several books in a pile, and then ties them with a rope so that they can be packed, say, in a box. Archivers, on the other hand, convert the data specified by the user for more compact storage or transfer to any available storage medium.
Initially, archiving programs were mainly in demand only for sending data through the then still slow and narrow Internet channels. With a dial-up connection, the download time for a relatively large amount of data took considerable time. For example, it took two to five minutes to send a medium-sized picture or photograph to a mail server. However, during the same time it was possible to download an archive in which there would already be several pictures. The benefits of using an archiving program were obvious.
Currently, archivers are also in demand. Compression parameters have changed, data packing algorithms have become much more complex and efficient. A special software has appeared, focused on working with certain types of files that previously could not be archived.
It should be noted that at the moment there are a large number of universal programs for archiving files that have trial versions or are completely free. First of all, these are WinRar, WinZip, Winace, 7-zip, Power Archiever. Most of these programs require you to purchase a license key to get a fully functional working version.
According to the compression method, archiving software is divided into types. The "file compressor" program can efficiently compress an executable file with exe resolution, thus creating a self-extracting archive. Another software type - a universal archiver - is able to pack a significant amount of information into one archive, working with all file permissions without exception. Currently, this division is somewhat arbitrary, since modern programs are designed for universal use, which means they can meet the requirements of any type of archiving.
Interestingly, despite the great progress in archiving software, working with pre-compressed files is still ineffective and needs significant improvement. So, for example, remarkable results are achieved when packing files with the extensions txt, doc, exe, bmp into an archive. However, the archiving of compressed data in mp3, avi,.jpg"