Zip files...what are they good for?

[mamabear72]

Hello friends, I have a zip question for you all...

Are zip files used only to slow down the "transfer" time for downloading or does zipping a file actually make it take up less room on my hard drive? My computer has a bug/virus/trogen horse...you name it so I'm saving everything I need and having my computer completly wiped out. My scrapbooking paper files are huge so I thought I'd zip em' but it seems like they take up the same amount of space on my CD before or after they're zipped, hmmmmm?

Thank you

[AmeliasMuma]

Zip files are compression files so they take up less room. However if you are zipping jpegs, jpgs they wont compress because a jpg is already a compressed file. You can't double compress

When I had a problem with my pc I zipped up my whole "My Documents folder" came out to a few gig and transfered it to Toms pc. I'm not sure they slow down the transfer rate though. It usually takes less time for a ziped file to download because its smaller.

[pkdoll]

I agree with muma. Zipped is less for most all files except jpegs and such.

[mint]

If you saved your computer you may be able to reboot it to a time before the virus got in and wipe it out with out destroying everything. will your computer do that.

[srussell]

I wouldn't try and necessarily try to "zip" everything into one big file... you may have problems "unzipping" it later on, depending on the computer you are moving to

You can zip them into smaller files or hook up an external hard drive or backup device and "copy" everything in the "My Documents/Scrapbook Max!" folder.

[AmeliasMuma]

I wouldn't try and necessarily try to "zip" everything into one big file... you may have problems "unzipping" it later on, depending on the computer you are moving to

You can zip them into smaller files or hook up an external hard drive or backup device and "copy" everything in the "My Documents/Scrapbook Max!" folder.

This maybe true, I will admit it took 30 mins to zip and unzip everything when I was upgrading to a newer and better pc so I encountered no problems.