# copying large file to 2CDs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501 "2003-05-30T12:48:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Stilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stilla)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/1 "2003-05-30T12:48:23Z")
How can you split a large file, say 850 MB, into two parts so that you can save it to CD? Assume it cannot be compressed to a smaller size. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/2 "2003-05-30T12:53:56Z")
Use a backup utility that will recognize when the end of the storage media has been reached, and prompt you to insert another disc. I am unable to recommend such a utility, but I’m sure somebody will be along shortly who can. ---
**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/3 "2003-05-30T12:57:27Z")
The latest version of zip ([www.winzip.com](http://www.winzip.com)) will break up a large zip file to any sizes you like, I think it has an option to automatically break them up to CD-R sized chunks. They call it “spanning”, brought over from the old days when people would “span” onto floppies. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/4 "2003-05-30T13:05:44Z")
Afterthought: Go to [www.download.com](http://www.download.com) and search for “backup” in downloads. There is at least 1 feeebie I see that claims to be able to backup your whole hard drive to CD-RWs. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/5 "2003-05-30T14:26:35Z")
Alternatively, you could always invest in a DVD writer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Stilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stilla)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/6 "2003-05-30T14:32:13Z")
I found a program, 30 day trial, from Willow Creek called WCbackupCD that will do the job. If happy with it I will buy the licence. Thanks all. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/7 "2003-05-30T14:50:04Z")
- - - The **previous** versions of WinZip had a lame-a$$ spanning function: you could only span a group of small files across floppies, _only if every file in the group was smaller than ~1.3 megs_. It couldn’t span a single 7-meg file across multiple floppy disks, for example, and it only spanned _directly_ to floppies–not to HD at all, so you had to stick a bunch of floppies in one by one as it filled them up, and then re-copy the floppies back to your HD if you wanted the files there. It was not very useful, really. If the newer version is limited the same but “super-sized” to handle CD-R’s, 2-L with it. - WinRar does not have this limitation: you can create a multi-volume archive, and specify any size volumes you want, and save to anywhere you want. It can split a 30-meg file into 1-meg volumes, 5-meg volumes, 10-meg volumes or any other file size you need, and save directly to your HD. It can produce _self-extracting archives_ and the compression is also selectable from a few different levels, and worked better (produced a smaller file size) but ran way slower on high compression than WinZip did. ~ ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/8 "2003-05-30T15:23:39Z")
Or just use Nero, it comes with cdwriters & select HD backup & then the file/directory you want & it lets you know how many cds you need. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/9 "2003-05-30T17:06:35Z")
Alternately, you can use a simple splitter utility. [MasterSplitter](http://www.tomasoft.com/) is a shareware (nag screen) one, but I’m sure that there are freeware splitters. Just tell it the size of the pieces and it will split it for you. It even gives you a little “.bat” file that reassembles the pieces without extra software on the target machine. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/10 "2003-05-30T18:58:55Z")
> [@](#): > > It even gives you a little “.bat” file that reassembles the pieces without extra software on the target machine. - - - WinRar = teh bettar. 🙂 To extract self-extracting volumes, you only need all the volumes in the same directory of a writeable drive, and to double-click on the first one. The files are labelled indicating how many are in the series, such as “vacation\_movie\_01of12.rar” You _do_ need all of the volumes to extract any of them, however. Else it just errors out & stops when it fails to find the first missing volume. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/11 "2003-05-30T21:50:14Z")
Yeah, but ya need WinRar. If you lose the batch file, I’ll give you a hint. It’s “copy file1.bla+file2.bla+file3.bla+file4.bla file.bla” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/12 "2003-05-30T23:17:33Z")
Remember with WinRar to put the version of it you compressed your files with on the cd too if you can, cause some files only open with the version you compressed it with. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/13 "2003-05-30T23:24:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, but ya need WinRar. - - - You only need WinRar to _create_ the **self-extracting** archive – not unzip it. To un-compress it, one just double-clicks on the first file in the series. …? - Well, on a Windows OS anyway, I dunno about on Linux or Mac… --And another bad thing I found about (earlier version) WinZip is that it will not zip two files of the same name, even if they are in different directories. WinRar will. And WinRar seems to unzip anything that WinZip can. * * * If you use a compressing program to compress its own files, does it become infinitely small? \<:o ~ ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/14 "2003-05-30T23:39:28Z")
I use a little program called SplitJoin. It’s only 30kb so you can easily burn a copy onto the cd along with your file. It splits a file into as many pieces as you want and any size you want. It then makes a small (1kb) checksum file for ensuring the copies were split correctly. I’ve found that small, efficient programs without extraneous features are much more useful then do-it-all type programs, especially when you just want that one feature. Google for ‘SplitJoin’ or email me and I’ll send you a copy. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/15 "2003-05-30T23:50:18Z")
Forgot to mention but SplitJoin is completely free ([I hate nag screens](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182071)). Plus, you wouldn’t have to deal with all the problems of zipped files that have been mentioned in this thread. PS I’ve found WinRar to be far superior to WinZip. Just seemed to be more intuitive. ---
**Author:** ![FyreFiend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/919ad9/32.png) [@FyreFiend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FyreFiend)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/16 "2003-05-31T00:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cletus \* > \*\*I use a little program called SplitJoin. It’s only 30kb so you can easily burn a copy onto the cd along with your file. It splits a file into as many pieces as you want and any size you want. It then makes a small (1kb) checksum file for ensuring the copies were split correctly. I’ve found that small, efficient programs without extraneous features are much more useful then do-it-all type programs, especially when you just want that one feature. > > Google for ‘SplitJoin’ or email me and I’ll send you a copy. Hope that helps. \*\* \ One nice thing about split files is any Unix-like OS (Linux, Mac OSX, etc) can just put the pieces back together with ‘cat’ (‘cat $file1 $file2 $file3 \> $whole\_file’) \ ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/17 "2003-05-31T02:45:12Z")
Likewise, any Unixish OS can do the splitting with no more than dd. I love dd. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/18 "2003-05-31T02:51:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nanoda \* > \*\*Yeah, but ya need WinRar. If you lose the batch file, I’ll give you a hint. It’s “copy file1.bla+file2.bla+file3.bla+file4.bla file.bla” 🙂 \*\* ahem… copy **\b** file1.bla+file2.bla+… The **\b** makes a world of difference 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copying-large-file-to-2cds/178501/19 "2003-05-31T08:28:59Z")
True dat. My text file is A-ok tho. 😃