question about space saving file compression

my dad has 8.56gigs of data on my hardrive and wont let me delete it so i was going to compress it to save space but i was wondering a few things

first - what is the best program to do this with

second - what is the average run time for that much data

third - are there any other solutions on how to lesson the amount of data it takes besides compression

 

problem still major inconvenience can anyone help?

 

any suggestions people?

 

Hi Red,

You could try 7-Zip, available on the MG download site.

 

Hi Red,
It's me again. Is this one contiguous file, like a program or a video file? Or are there many files that can be put into separate folders and then burned onto multiple DVD's/CD's? Then re-inserted later.

 

they are kinda fragmented but they are primarly 2 wmv and a lot of avi files there my dads so i cant delete and i dont have a disk for them

so u see my dilema compression is taking forever with 256mb of ram and its still huge

 

Sorry, red death68 but no compression program can make these files smaller. Wmv and Avi are already so compressed that a program such as WinZip or WinRar or 7zip will not make them any smaller.

It doesn't matter how much RAM or CPU power you have wmv and avi are already as compressed as they can be. WinRar might take a 750mb wmv file and make it 749mb but that is it. It would probably take about 10-20 minutes. But you will realize no appreciable savings in space.

The only solution is to burn the files to CD/DVD disc or get a larger HD.

Sorry, I don't have better news.