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- How can ZIP'R Pro triple hard disk space?
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- Most of the "on-the-fly" compression programs claim to be able to double your
- hard disk space. My experience has been that these programs are only able to
- achieve a compression ratio of 1.5 - 1.8 to 1, not the 2 to 1 ratio they
- promise. The required compression device driver, which consumes 40K-50K of
- valuable base or high RAM, is also a nuisance. ZIP'R Pro is able to achieve
- much higher compression ratios by combining the compression capabilities of
- existing archiving utilities with the space-savings of drastically reduced
- waste due to allocation unit slack space. My tests indicate that the
- combination of ZIP'R Pro and PKZIP v2.04g can compress programs by three
- times, effectively tripling hard drive capacity!
-
- The following chart contains information regarding the performance of ZIP'R
- Pro when used on various programs. For the most part, these programs are
- currently in use in my business, and contain the usual amount of data files
- one would expect of a small business. Some programs were installed for a
- short time solely to check the effectiveness of ZIP'R Pro. Since data files
- normally compress better than program files, the "real-world" compression
- ratios for these programs should be better than these tests indicate.
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- For purposes of this test, all programs to be tested were placed on a Novell
- 2.2 file server. This file server was equipped with a 245MEG hard drive,
- which was divided into 4096 byte allocation units (clusters).
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- Prior to compression, the number of files and sub-directories comprising the
- program was calculated using the "Info" feature of QuikMenu III. The size of
- the entire program, including any sub-directories, was calculated using the
- same method. The number of files and sub-directories is contained in the
- "Files" column of the the chart. The size of the program and its sub-
- directories is contained in the "Normal Program / DOS Size" column of the
- chart. Then, Novell's NDIR /SUB command was used to determine the actual
- amount of disk space consumed by the program and its sub-directories when
- allocation units were considered. This figure is contained in the "Normal
- Program / Disk Size" column of the chart.
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- The program was then compressed with PKZIP v2.04g, using the default
- compression method. (All files and sub-directories were included in the .ZIP
- file, and deleted using the "m -rp" command-line switches.) The size of the
- compressed file was then calculated using QuikMenu III, and appears in the
- "Compressed Program / DOS Size" column of the chart. NDIR was used to
- determine the actual amount of disk space consumed by the compressed program
- when allocation units were considered, and this figure appears in the
- "Compressed Program / Disk Size" column of the chart.
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- The DOS Size of the uncompressed program was divided by the DOS Size of the
- compressed program, and this figure appears in the "DOS Ratio" column of the
- chart. The Disk Size of the uncompressed program was divided by the Disk Size
- of the compressed program, and this figure appears in the "Disk Ratio" column
- of the chart.
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- The "Disk Ratio" indicates the amount of compression achieved by ZIP'R / PKZIP
- when allocation units are considered. This is an accurate reflection of the
- hard disk space-savings that can be expected for that particular program.
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- Page 1
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- Normal Program Compressed Program DOS Disk
- Files DOS Size Disk Size Files DOS Size Disk Size Ratio Ratio
- ----- ----------- ----------- ----- ----------- ---------- ----- -----
- Borland Pascal v7.0
- 964 28,657,637 31,002,624 1 13,007,443 13,012,992 2.2:1 2.4:1
-
- DacEasy Accounting v4.3
- 259 14,818,049 15,253,504 1 2,369,230 2,371,584 6.3:1 6.4:1
-
- Generic CADD v6.0
- 813 12,162,813 14,426,112 1 3,701,975 3,702,784 3.3:1 3.9:1
-
- Ingram Micro Electronic Price Guide
- 28 8,637,889 8,691,712 1 1,728,944 1,732,608 5.0:1 5.0:1
-
- Labels Unlimited v3.0
- 98 1,670,794 1,916,928 1 664,166 667,648 2.5:1 2.9:1
-
- Professional Write v2.22
- 70 3,290,442 3,440,640 1 1,478,570 1,478,656 2.2:1 2.3:1
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- QuickBASIC v4.5
- 72 1,512,253 1,695,744 1 997,639 1,003,520 1.5:1 1.7:1
-
- Rolodex Live! v2.0
- 42 1,797,191 1,871,872 1 480,257 483,328 3.7:1 3.9:1
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- SHEZ v8.9
- 34 711,902 794,624 1 299,670 303,104 2.4:1 2.6:1
-
- Stowaway v1.91
- 62 1,938,041 2,097,152 1 697,265 700,416 2.8:1 3.0:1
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- Tech Data Electronic Price Guide
- 8 4,309,617 4,329,472 1 1,236,068 1,236,992 3.5:1 3.5:1
-
- Turbo C/C++ v3.0
- 368 7,931,397 8,863,744 1 3,031,940 3,039,232 2.6:1 2.9:1
- ----- ----------- ----------- ----- ----------- ---------- ----- -----
- Total 87,438,025 94,384,128 Total 29,693,167 29,732,864 2.9:1 3.2:1
- ===== =========== =========== ===== =========== ========== ===== =====
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