Best Way of compressing big files

Hey, i'm wondering what you guys think is the best way of compressing really big files (4GB +)
For most files i use sheepshaver running 8.6 and stuffit 5.5 but this just dosen't seem to cut it for big files

The options i am considering are:
Use a more modern version of stuffit and stuff as .sit (this is more compatible with the classic os's, but if i remember correctly some old versions of stuffit can't decompress .sit's from current versions)

Use .zip (which isn't very compatible with classic os's, and some modern decompresseors still can't handle >4gb .zips)

Use .rar as i have done in the past (which although it isn't compatible with the classic os's, all modern os's have a decent utility to decompress them)

I'm open to other suggestions on what to use, but these seem like the obvious choices to me

Comments

2014, April 11 - 10:05pm

Gary

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Joined: 2011 Jul 21

I don't have a compression opinion but I have a related issue. Recently I downloaded a 3 GB file from the net to a memory stick that was DOS formatted. The download was successful. On my Chromebook the file size was 3 GB. It was the same on OS X and Windows XP But when I tried to copy the file from the stick using 9.2.2 to a Mac Extended format hard disk, the copy failed. The file size itself was reported by Finder as a negative number on the DOS disk.

I've also noted that iMovie NEVER creates a file larger than 1.99 GB.

This leads me to think that whatever compression method you choose, you should segment any large file into 1.99 GB chunks as part of your regimen.

Gary