How about a feature to mount RAR of ZIP archives as a CD?

[rgreat]

%subj%

Can be really-really useful, while somewhat slow.

[LAS3R]

I don't really get point of it, just extract files and u get same thing, and this program is for mounting CD/DVD images!

but would be great if u supplied example of it's usefulness to mount rar/zip file, i got very much problem see point in it

[rgreat]

Point is: RAR/ZIP archive can take much less disk space then ISO file.

But, i can't run archived Delphi 7 installation CD (for example) directly from archive, i need to unpack it to temporally dir first.

So, this feature will save alot of disk space and user time.

If you can also add write capablity, then it will be also nice (?or best in production?) virtual archived storage drives.
But i'm not requesting that,.. yet.

[JariK-Tietomedia]

How about getting a 160GB drive for <100 euros?
Enough room for 200+ uncompressed CDs.

[rgreat]

How about you delete your winzip if you are so clever?
Huh?

I hope we will talk about possible new D-T feature, and not about how me spend my money...

P.S. I have 7x250Gb+2x120Gb harddrives in my home computer.
And i _still_ forced to clear up disk space.
Its simple. You can pay for extra hardware or you can archive data.
More data you archived - less you pay (and less problems you have with hardware).

[LAS3R]

rgreat hmm didn't think of that possibility, it's very good idea!

but it's very, if not imposible to add such function, since zip/rar file is compressed, a iso isn't compressed in same way, only way can think of is to instead of extracting files to disk then u need extract them to memory wich would take alot of memory for big files!

RAR -> Extract to driver -> run file from driver

but as your idea it would only work if did it:

RAR -> extract to memory -> run file from memory

so 200mb file would require 200mb of free memory, and i assume u talking about alot bigger files in this case!

it would work but require to much memory and go alot slower, since compression ratio on rar archive is alot better than iso!

[rgreat]

How do you think, if its possible to extract not entrie file, but parts of it, as needed?

I think it CAN be possible... not sure though.

Or one can use streaming extraction... e.g.: while extraction module extracts next sections of file driver write to disk and frees memory for previous sections.

There was C examples of RAR disarchiver somewhere, as i remember.

[LAS3R]

my explanation was for solid archives, but i guess i say as authors always say. make plugin :P

[hubbelyo]

Uncompressed RAR support

Hello,

I was thinking that it would be nice if Daemon tools could mount a splitted, uncompressed, RAR archive which contains a cd-image.

It's not unusual to find cd-images which are stored that way: file.rar, file.r00, file.r01, file.r02 etc

As a coincident I implemented a library to create splitted, uncompressed RAR archives just a few weeks ago. It would be quite easy for me to implement a library that would handle a set of rar files through it's API as one big file (just like the uncompressed BIN file).

Is the source code or possibly a SDK available to implement plugins for DAEMON tools. Maybe I should contact the author and give him the lib directly

Cheers
/hubbelyo

[LocutusofBorg]

It's not unusual to find cd-images which are stored that way: file.rar, file.r00, file.r01, file.r02 etc

if that's not unusual, please give me some examples!!

[HeldereM]

Hey, I was searching for a plugin to mount from rar images also, but they say its not possible.

I have however a tip, use .NRG (nero) as image, tis will save some space

Or of course when you find a better type... 8)

[LocutusofBorg]

I'm still waiting for the answer to my question above!

[Underheaven]

Re: How about a feature to mount RAR of ZIP archives as a CD?

What about decompressing the archive to a RAM drive (such as StarPort) and mouting it from there?

One problem would be that it will need to be decompressed again after a reboot. Maybe that could be automated with a script.

[Copytrooper]

You're are aware of the amount of RAM needed for decompressing, the RAM drive and the OS?

[JariK-Tietomedia]

I'll celebrate my 150th post by...writing a rant.

On-the-fly decompressing and mounting RAR/ZIP/whatever packed images is a more and more useless feature every passing day.

Compression doesn't even help much at all as modern installation CDs are already compressed. Those images with lots of empty/compressible data can be created as sparse files or transparently compressed using NTFS.

To back up my words I compressed 20 CD images made with Alcohol with newest WinRAR and "good" compression setting, other settings at default. Before compression the files took 15,1GB, after compression 14,2GB so I saved a whopping 900MB (6%) of space while the compression took over 30 minutes on a very fast computer*.

Myself, instead of spending my time for de-/compression, RAM disk management, writing scripts and defragmenting the archives I would just spend 60/125 euros to a new 120/250GB drive (anyone want to estimate how much does 120/250GB of legal software cost for comparison?) instead of spending much more for huge RAM disks (and a new drive to store all those compressed images sooner or later - 6% won't last forever).

I'm sorry if I sound too pessimistic; a fast, efficient and completely transparent compression could be useful. However, such solution doesnt seem to exist yet and even if this miracle compressor could save 18% of space instead of 6% it would take only 4-7 months before the ever increasing GB/euro ratio would make up for it.


*relevant test machine specs: Prescott/3,9GHz, 2GB DDR400, 2x36GB Raptor RAID0.