WinRAR vs Zip vs 7zip vs Others

[atom0s]

Something I've always wondered is why people still use WinRAR as their main archiving tool of choice. 7z has been around for a while now and has proven to have a better compression ratio on pretty much everything. So what are your opinions on sticking with .rar instead of moving to .7z or a different archive type?

[lordi]

I use 7zip, but winrar still more popular I think, thats why many people using it

[Kerlingen]

Even though the program type suggests it, the compression ratio is not (and never was) the main reason to use one archiver instead of the other.

If you need an archiver for yourself or for a small environment, you choose the one which has all the features you need and which has a good backward and forward compatibility.

If you need to serve a bigger environment, you choose the one with the highest compatibility and acceptance.

This is the reason why ZIP (and not RAR or 7z or something else) is used for pretty much anything.

[DARKER]

WinRAR has good compression too, but it's default lowered for performance ...
Some my advantages that beats other archivers:
- very good customizable self extracting archives
- very good command line support for automatizing tasks
- can use all your threads/cpu for packing/unpacking = good speed
- good recovering possibility
- can detect type of files and auto choose right compression
- file extension order in archive - good for big archives, if you need look at e.g. *.txt it will extract very fast and don't need seek through whole archive
- very strong crypto

[Archer]

I'm not sure about WinRAR's crypto. It's a proprietary software and I don't remember anyone checking it for some bugs/backdoors. On the other hand 7zip is opensource and thus more preferable in respect to crypto. Besides its crypto was checked by one guy who knows a thing or two in crypto stuff.

[DARKER]

Originally Posted by Archer

On the other hand 7zip is opensource and thus more preferable in respect to crypto.

hxxp://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm

there is UnRAR source code, structure format, crypto source you can check it :-)

[arthur plank]

When it comes to any software tools (including compression tools), habit is also a major driving force.

It's only fairly recently that I've started to use 7zip and it's now become the standard for our company use. But for a long time, ARJ was the preferred choice.

[agoo]

I love winrar because of easy password insertion.

[alephz]

Never use 7z for any valuable data, for temporary junk only. Rar is a best choice, especialy due error correction (Reed-Solomon). I seen a lot topics about all 7z packed data lost (possible via a few erroneous bits in archive). Built-in support 7z in Far is solely reason for me sometimes (rarely) to use 7z for noncritical tasks.

[atom0s]

Originally Posted by alephz

Never use 7z for any valuable data, for temporary junk only. Rar is a best choice, especialy due error correction (Reed-Solomon). I seen a lot topics about all 7z packed data lost (possible via a few erroneous bits in archive). Built-in support 7z in Far is solely reason for me sometimes (rarely) to use 7z for noncritical tasks.

Can't say I have ever ran into this issue before since starting to use 7z. Been using it for a few years now too and not once have I had an archive corrupt on me. You sure the fault was 7z and not, perhaps, a HDD starting to fail or something? Not saying it can't be 7z's fault but just never seen that happen before.

[giv]

7Zip (powerful and free). I never encountered problems with 7z files.
I even donated a few buck to Oleh.

[alephz]

Originally Posted by giv

I even donated a few buck to Oleh.

7z creator name is Igor.

[giv]

Sure. My mistake.

[nikkapedd]

atom0s is right, all the times that i had problems with 7z archive was due at HDD defect or CD/DVD/BR bad supports.. I'm using 7z to make also big archives with no problems.. The unique problem with 7z with big archives is that is necessary to open the whole archive to unzip even a single file.. And it takes time...

And i waiting the full support for the rar v5 archives...

[alephz]

Last time I read about problems with large 7z SFX archive (> 100 Gb) on russian site (CyberForum.ru). Problem was intensively tested (600 Gb free on HDD, 28 Gb RAM) - SFX-archive each time was broken for large files. Relatively small archives (up to 30 Gb on some computer was OK). But I'm personally seen as 7z create broken ordinal archives on medium size files (~400 Mb) if allowed memory was very low. I think this is just a BUG - no ErrCode returned or checked inside COM-chain calls or smth like.

Also, no matter if a few bits flipped due disk or transmission error - with Rar ECC procedure it just a few extra clicks to recover damaged data, but 7z archive dead.