Splitting a folder

[mutated corpse]

Recently i was trying to split a folder containing different type of files(.exe, .jpg, .avi and so on) using WinRAR. The folder is about 12 GB and i am trying to split it into DVD sizes. However whenever i try to do it, it will give me only 1 rar file with everything in it. Is there something i am missing out? I simply enter 4.35g into the "Split to volumes, bytes" space. Or is it because it is not possible to split a folder? I am using the latest version of WinRAR and it is not registered.

[pam123]

WinRAR is a file compression and archiving utility : http://www.geocities.com/doc_piano/winrar_faq.html

Very useful but I don't think it's the tool for the job you want to do.
If you just want to split that folder into smaller sizes you'll have to do it manually in Windows by creating 2 new folders and moving the files into them.

[Statica]

How are you entering the value .. are you sure that WinRAR recognizes 'g' for gigabytes? Have you tried entering in 4670776934 for bytes? WinRAR will split it up quite efficiently for you, I just haven't tried the GB ranges. Winace is also a good alternative.

[mutated corpse]

Thank you for your replies. pam123, I did try using that method but because my folder has subfolders which i do not want to mess up, and so when i burn into a DVD there will be some extra space wasted. Well, 1 extra DVD may not be a big deal, but i thought if i were to make frequent backup like this i will be losing more DVDs in the long run.

Statica, i tried what you suggested and it worked fine. Thank you. But about entering 'g' in the value was an idea i got from Winrar's help file. This is what it says: "Create volumes with size=*1000. By default this switch uses as thousands (1000) of bytes (not 1024 x bytes). You may also enter the size in kilobytes using the symbol 'k', in bytes using the symbol 'b', in megabytes - 'm', millions of bytes - 'M', gigabytes - 'g', billions (milliards) of bytes - 'G' or select one of several predefined values using the symbol 'f' following the numerical value. Predefined values can be 360, 720, 1200, 1440 or 2880 and replaced with corresponding floppy disk size. If the size is omitted, autodetection will be used." Base on what i understood from this, isn't 'g' suppose to represent gigabytes? Or have i misunderstood something?

[Statica]

WinRAR is extremely efficient in allowing for such splits. If the files are critical to you, might I suggest creating a few parity files as well and storing on an extra DVD? Also, you dont need it to be exactly 4.xx GB, personally, I would've split it into 1GB or even 0.5GB bits; that way file operations are much better in terms of openning or copying the files.

It is worthwhile to think that maybe winrar only accepts whole numbers in the volume split note that entering 4.35g is actually 4670776934.4 bytes.

[mutated corpse]

I just tried with '4g' and i got them into different parts. It seems that you are right Statica. Thank you. Thats all i need to know.

[kilgoretrout]

I'm not sure this was an issue for you, but if you are trying to create winrar archives of about 4GB, you should be aware that FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit(actually, 4GB minus one byte). So if you were trying to do this on a FAT32 partition, you may have simply run into the FAT32 file size limit.

[mutated corpse]

I just checked, I am using NTFS. Then that shouldn't be an issue right? Anyway, I can create archives of more than 4 GB, it just depends on what i entered. 4.35g is not accepted, but 4670776934 bytes is. Statica pointed this out, so it all works fine now. I really appreciate your help.