Vista - Archiving VHD images to a USB device, 2GB zip limit

02-28-2009

I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't).

I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive
and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to
compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and
50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving.

Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files
over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create
them.

Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB
up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of
compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside
the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller
somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all
that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal
compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these
days

02-28-2009

>Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB

Quote:

>up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of
>compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside
>the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller
>somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all
>that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal
>compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these
>days

That's something totally different than compression like you're
talking about, it's only to compress out free space to shrink VHD
files, it's not whole file compression.

There's a couple possible answers to your question, the first being to
format your external HD as NTFS and use NTFS compression (not the best
compression, but not bad) but if it's a large partition, you have to
use something other than the base OS to format it because XP wont
format it NTFS.

The second is to get a better "compressed folders" app like the latest
version WinZIP, it's handle bigger files. If it's just for archiving,
this is the way I'd go, but make sure it verifies the archive when you
create it, USB can introduce problems as well.

--
Bob Comer

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
wrote:

Quote:

>I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't).
>
>I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive
>and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to
>compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and
>50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving.
>
>Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files
>over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create
>them.
>
>Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB
>up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of
>compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside
>the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller
>somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all
>that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal
>compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these
>days

02-28-2009

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
wrote:

Quote:

>I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't).
>
>I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive
>and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to
>compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and
>50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving.
>
>Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files
>over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create
>them.
>
>Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB
>up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of
>compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside
>the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller
>somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all
>that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal
>compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these
>days

WinRAR? Doesn't have near the limitations of ZIP.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

03-01-2009

Steve Jain [MVP] wrote:

Quote:

> On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
> wrote:
>

Quote:

>> I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't).
>>
>> I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive
>> and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to
>> compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and
>> 50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving.
>>
>> Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files
>> over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create
>> them.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB
>> up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of
>> compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside
>> the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller
>> somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all
>> that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal
>> compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these
>> days

>
> WinRAR? Doesn't have near the limitations of ZIP.

Good one! WinRAR does the job nicely.

02-28-2009	#1 (permalink)
d d n/a posts	Archiving VHD images to a USB device, 2GB zip limit I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't). I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and 50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving. Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create them. Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these days
My System Specs

02-28-2009	#2 (permalink)
Robert Comer n/a posts	Re: Archiving VHD images to a USB device, 2GB zip limit >Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB Quote: >up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of >compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside >the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller >somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all >that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal >compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these >days That's something totally different than compression like you're talking about, it's only to compress out free space to shrink VHD files, it's not whole file compression. There's a couple possible answers to your question, the first being to format your external HD as NTFS and use NTFS compression (not the best compression, but not bad) but if it's a large partition, you have to use something other than the base OS to format it because XP wont format it NTFS. The second is to get a better "compressed folders" app like the latest version WinZIP, it's handle bigger files. If it's just for archiving, this is the way I'd go, but make sure it verifies the archive when you create it, USB can introduce problems as well. -- Bob Comer On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com> wrote: Quote: >I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't). > >I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive >and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to >compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and >50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving. > >Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files >over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create >them. > >Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB >up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of >compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside >the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller >somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all >that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal >compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these >days
My System Specs

02-28-2009	#3 (permalink)
Steve Jain [MVP] n/a posts	Re: Archiving VHD images to a USB device, 2GB zip limit On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com> wrote: Quote: >I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't). > >I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive >and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to >compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and >50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving. > >Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files >over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create >them. > >Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB >up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of >compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside >the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller >somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all >that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal >compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these >days WinRAR? Doesn't have near the limitations of ZIP. -- Cheers, Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP http://vpc.essjae.com/
My System Specs

03-01-2009	#4 (permalink)
d d n/a posts	Re: Archiving VHD images to a USB device, 2GB zip limit Steve Jain [MVP] wrote: Quote: > On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com> > wrote: > Quote: >> I know you could say this isn't a Virtual PC problem (but please don't). >> >> I'm trying to archive some of my rarely used VHD files to a USB drive >> and I've noticed that VHD files compress quite well (using XP's "send to >> compressed folder"). I've seen the zip files come out between 33% and >> 50%, which if you're arching 100GB's worth of VHDs is very nice saving. >> >> Unfortunately, there's a well known and MS-admitted problem with files >> over 2GB that they can become corrupted, so it won't even try and create >> them. >> >> Does anyone know of a way to compress my larger VHDs that range from 2GB >> up to 16GB? I know there's some kind of way (in VPC somewhere) of >> compressing them. If I recall correctly, you first do a defrag inside >> the VM, then there's some external tool which makes the file smaller >> somehow. I could use a refresher on that process, but even after all >> that, I'd still like to zip the final file to get the optimal >> compression. Even an external 500GB drive seems to fill up easily these >> days > > WinRAR? Doesn't have near the limitations of ZIP. Good one! WinRAR does the job nicely.
My System Specs

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