> WinRAR is more-or-less the same as
Winzip, except that you can create uncompressed
> (a la 'TARs') archives.
These are basically a group of files all stuck together in one big
file.
> The difference is, as there's no
compression, it's much easier to recover the individual files.
The key is that it allows you to "zip" the
files into a group of smaller archives. So a 500mb group of wavs can be
broken down to fifty 10mb files. The benefit of this can be seen when
using the QuickPar recovery system. You load up the 50 files and it
creates a recovery set of, say, 8 files.
Let's say you go to load your DVD of
archived files into your drive and it slips, hits the edge of the drive tray and
scratches. You find one of the files in your 50 file archive is now
damaged and unreadable. You can use QuickPar to recreate that damaged
file.
This method won't work on single 500mb
archive as QuickPar will make a 500mb recovery set. So it makes more sense
to break down the archive to smaller files.
-paul