Windows 7: How reliable is zipping in Windows 7 Explorer?

There have been times in the past when a zip file I created was corrupt (or became corrupt somehow). I encountered this either using WinZip or command-line zip, possibly in old Unix environments. To me, there is a risk in relying solely on zip archives and deleting the original unzipped files. The risk isn't only in losing one file that is corrupt -- any corruption anywhere in the entire archive could render all the files therein inaccessible. Hence, the risk increases with the size of the archive.



How reliable is the zip that is native to Windows 7? In addition to that general question, what about specifically for files in the Gigabyte range (fraction of a GB or several GBs)? If it is very reliable, then I will use the Windows 7's "compressed (zipped) folder" to create archives for writing to DVD.

I am using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I want to avoid discussion about Windows 7 backup as it is not suitable for my specific purposes.

Hello New7user7,

I've never had a problem using the built-in ZIP feature in Windows.

Zip a File or Folder - How To

I never heard of a problem with it, but it's really VERY limited compared to any serious compression software and lacks a lot of options, not to mention the much lower compression ratio.

I like WinRAR for the job, it's not free but with a lot of options and nice shell integration (not as full as the zip folders though). It also has an option called "data recovery record" that helps recovering damaged files, if you're concerned about file corruption.

7-Zip is another very good option and is free and open source. It's as fast as WinRAR and easy to use too, but not as intuitive. Also has a very good compression ratio generally.

Personally, I would never use the Windows built-in thing if given the chance of any other option.

Thank you, Brink, Alejandro85.

Glad we could help.