Using 7-Zip to Manage Compressed Data/Archives

If you need to save disk space, e.g. when you need to upload or send large files via e-mail, try compressing some or all of your files, creating a so-called "Zip (or zipped) Archive" file.

Such archives (which tipically hold the extension .zip) can be as little as 10% of the original file(s) size (depending on the nature of the source file(s)) therefore are an effective way to backup and transport data.

Furthermore, ZIP archives are natively supported (can be opened) both on recent Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

At the EUI you can use the software 7-Zip (which is available on all EUI PCs) to create and manage ZIP files (and many other common compressed archive formats such as RAR, ARJ, LZH and TAR to name a few) as well:

Creating a ZIP Archive

1. Open the folder containing the files you want to zip, right-click on any free space inside the folder, choose New and then Compressed (zipped) Folder. Name the archive as you wish.
2. Double-click on the newly created archive: a new window will open. Drag and drop any file you want to archive into this folder.
   You can choose one or more from anywhere in your storage area. Each time you add a file you may need to confirm by clicking OK as well.
3. Once you have finished adding files, exit from the window (X button on top right).
4. A new archive file has now been created, with a .zip extension. It contains all the files that you added but is much smaller in size than their uncompressed total.

Archiving an Entire Folder

Sometimes it is more convenient to zip an entire folder, above all since the following method stores the path of the original folder as well (i.e., when extracted, the ZIP file will recreate the exact folder structure including all its contents).

1. Browse one level above the folder you want to archive, right-click on it and choose 7-Zip followed by Add to archive... and OK.
2. A new archive file has now been created, named the same as your original folder, with a .zip extension. It contains all the files in the folder.

Restoring Single Files from a ZIP Archive

1. Double-click on the .zip file from the Windows Explorer: the file will automatically open up in a new window which will list all the files that are compressed into it.
2. If you only want to extract a subset of the files in the archive, you can highlight just those specific ones (by default, all files will be extracted), then simply drag and drop the files you want to restore from within the window to any location you wish.

WARNING: extracted files will overwrite any previous files with the same name in the destination (extraction) folder!

Restoring All Files/Folders From a ZIP Archive

This method is useful if you stored an entire folder in your zip file, since it lets you recreate the original folder structure:

1. Right-click on the zip file, choose 7-Zip and Extract files.... If you want to restore the archived folder in the same location containing your zip file, simply confirm by clicking OK. Otherwise specify the path in the Extract to: field.

WARNING: Extracted files will overwrite any previous files of the same name in the destination folder!