HELP!

How To Squeeze BIG Files On To Itty-Bity Disks

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the products mentioned. I just happen to use these products.

There are lots of Scouting resources on the web. Not every Scout and Scouter has access to the internet but we've all got friends... and they've got floppy disk drives.

What happens when you get a file too big to fit on a floppy? Are you just out of luck? No way! There are numerous programs available that can cut those files up into disk size pieces and spread them out over a number of floppies.

My Favorite Method (using PKZip)

The method I normally use involves PKZip 2.05 for DOS. (PKZip for Windows is a very good program for zipping and unzipping files but it will not do what I've outlined below.) PKZip for DOS has the ability to zip up a file directly in the floppy drive even though the file will be larger than the capacity of the drive. This is known as spanning disks. When performing this operation, make sure you have enough blank floppies available to complete the task or you'll have to start over. The command is

PKZIP -& A:\TEMP.ZIP FILENAME.EXT

Here's a quick analysis of the above command.

	PKZIP is the name of the executable file that creates the temporary archive on the floppy disks. If this file is not in your path, it will be necessary to include the entire path name, which would be something like C:\PKWARE\PKZIP
	-& is the span disks command
	A:\TEMP.ZIP is the name of the temporary archive you're creating on floppy disks to share with your friend. Any one to eight letter name with a .ZIP extention will work fine
	FILENAME.EXT is the name and extension of the file you want to split up and put on the floppy disks. You can use wildcards and/or more than one FILENAME.EXT

When your ready to uncompress the file (return it to its normal full size), you can use PKZip for Windows or PKUnZip (which is included with PKZip 2.04g for DOS). Put in the last disk first and unzip normally. You will then be prompted through the process.

The Other Method (using Master Splitter)

If you don't care to deal with a DOS program, there are many Windows programs like Master Splitter. It simply splits files into disk size chunks. You then use the same program to rejoin the files at the other end. This program's archive file is only 630 KB and fits easily onto most size floppies for transfer to the other computer.

There are four reasons I prefer the first method over this one:

The wide availability of PKZip all around the computing world.
PKZip places the new archive directly on the floppies and recreates the original file(s) directly from the floppy. If you use Master Splitter, you must transfer the newly created files to floppies at the originating computer after their creation and then from the floppy disks to the new computer before rejoining them. This adds two additional steps.
Master Splitter always makes the combined size of the new files larger than the size of the original. PKZip is a compression program which generally reduces the size of the original taking up less floppy disk space (and sometimes less floppies).
Master Splitter can only perform it's task on one file at a time. PKZip creates archives with numerous files compressed together saving time and disk space.

Since all these programs are shareware and readily available on the internet, feel free to try both methods and pick the one you like.

Merit Badge Resource Links	Merit Badge Research Page
Help With This Site	MBRC Site Map
Submit New Resource Links	Send Feedback to the MBRC
About This Site	Copyrights/Disclaimer

Comments, corrections, and questions should be sent by e-mail to: feedback@meritbadge.com

Return to www.MeritBadge.com