Unpacking files

[zatoicchi]

There are 4-5 established compression algorytms:
* ZIP
* RAR
* ACE
* TGZ/TAR.GZ
* TAR.BZ2

Explanation:

ZIP is the In My Honest Opinion the most known compression algorithm on the whole Internet. At the same time it is the worst one. The advantage is that it can be uncompressed by almost every packer, the disadvantage is its performance. If you download a ZIP file, just use one of the packers listed below.
To handle these files you should use:
WinRAR
WinACE
WinZIP

RAR is one of the most established high-performance compression algorithms available now. Developed in Russia and accepted in the filesharing world. Most of the advanced packers can access RAR files.
To handle these files you should use:
WinRAR
WinACE

The ACE format is as powerful as RAR, in most cases the result is a fourth better than ZIP's one. Unfortunately less accepted than RAR, but very powerful.
To handle these files you should use:
WinACE
WinRAR

TAR.GZ/TGZ is the well-known Tarball, first an uncompressed TAR archive, then compressed with GZIP. The standard in the unix-world, but a lot of distributors use TAR or TAR.GZ to distribute their files, too. Don't be scared off, since the format is supported by the most important compression maintainers.
To handle these files you should use:
WinRAR
WinACE

TAR.BZ2/TBZ is a more powerful format than TAR/GZ (GZip), else read TAR.GZ/TGZ.
To handle these files you should use:
WinRAR
WinACE

.xxx/.rxx/.cxx/.zxx where x stands for a digit between 0 and 9:
A lot of releases in the filesharing world land in the newsgroups first. Due to technical restrictions there an uploaded file has a file size limit. To upload files bigger than that limit releasers split them into parts. The first two (.xxx and .rxx, but also partxx.rar) are RAR pendants, the c in .cxx stands for ACE and the last one is ZIP file format. Except the .xxx version just open an accompanying .rar/.ace/.zip file and uncompress the contents. If you have a .xxx (.000->.999) version, open the file with the least extension value (.000 or .001 - which one is lower and present) and proceed unpacking.

[anon]

nice list :)

7-zip is every time growing in popularity by the way! and it's not in the list :D 7-Z's file manager can also unpack all of those archive formats and a lot more :top:

[Aurion]

nice list :)

7-zip is every time growing in popularity by the way! and it's not in the list :D 7-Z's file manager can also unpack all of those archive formats and a lot more :top:

yeah but you know 7-zip usage is still limited to small files since people trust in rar format for large files (im talking about large than 10GB eBooks/Scene Packs which cant go wrong in extraction) :biggrin:

Nice Guide zat,Keep it up buddy :top:

[anon]

yeah but you know 7-zip usage is still limited to small files since people trust in rar format for large files

yea i know 7z isn't in wide usage, but thought it'd be good if a short mention of it was in zat's list, so that readers know about another known compression format :smile:

edit: something like


7-ZIP is an open source implementation of the LZMA compression scheme. It isn't in wide usage yet. Compresses very good but takes longer to unpack.
To handle these files you should use:
7-Zip File Manager (www.7-zip.org)
WinRAR

[Grambo]

Another worth mentioning is Peazip.
It can handle a lot of formats.