fast and reliable unzip, unrar, etc tool

[kalos]

hello

are you aware of any good unrar, unzip etc tool?
it must be reliable

any benchmarks that prove that its faster?

also, is it true that winrar will always handle better rar files, since its the company that owns rar?

[tinjaw]

also, is it true that winrar will always handle better rar files, since its the company that owns rar?

-kalos (October 21, 2007, 08:45 PM)

The RAR compression algorithm is proprietary and not licensable. The RAR decompression libraries are available freely. So it depends on what you mean by "better" 

[kalos]

better in terms of speed, sys resources consumption, dual or more core utilization, accuracy in data and error tolerance and error fix

[f0dder]

I dunno if other companies can do a better job that WinRAR with regards to error tolerance and fixing, but it's possible (although not very likely) that better speeds could be achieved. Only WinRAR will handle compression of RAR archives though, since rarlabs aren't interested in licensing the compression code.

WinRAR is plenty fast and stable though... dunno why you want something "more reliable"?

[Ralf Maximus]

If by "reliability" you mean being able to recover data from an archive, even if it is damaged, check out Parity Archiving:  http://www.par2.net/

Basically, it allows you to create additional "parity" files that contain enough redundancy to rebuild any file or files, no matter how damaged.  The technology can even replace missing RAR files from multi-part archives.

Parity files used with executables can restore the .exe to a pre-virus infection state.

While intended to be used alongside a standard compression tool (Zip, Rar) PAR files can themselves be the archive, albeit with substandard compression.

Very cool, well established technology.

[kalos]

WinRAR is plenty fast and stable though... dunno why you want something "more reliable"?

-f0dder (October 22, 2007, 09:41 AM)

I don't need more reliable, I just wonder if other solutions will be at least as reliable as the company's soltuion that makes rar

I basicaly need something faster and something with more faetures and without some GUI annoyances of winrar

[Lashiec]

Maybe Squeez or PowerArchiver would fit the bill. In my opinion, they're the best alternatives to WinRAR, but even then, WinRAR is too much WinRAR. Did you give a look to Zaine's review in the site? Although it's a bit outdated, most of the points mentioned there are still valid today.

I don't think anything could go faster anyway. By some strange phenomena, ZIP decompression in other apps tend to be quite slower (and compresion... ufff, it's even worse). And RAR, well, you said it yourself, it's programmed by the RAR algorithm creator, so it can't get much better (not without compression support, of course).

If you only want decompression support, check up Universal Extractor or ExtractNow. Universal Extractor is a monster, it can decompress everything, but ExtractNow is prettier and it's quite more elegant (Universal Extractor cheats a bit regarding its algorithms decompression implementation)

[Ralf Maximus]

In my opinion, they're the best alternatives to WinRAR, but even then, WinRAR is too much WinRAR.

Heh

[f0dder]

WinRAR has the best GUI of any compressor I've seen... simple, to-the-point, no big flashing annoying icons.

I basicaly need something faster and something with more faetures and without some GUI annoyances of winrar

-kalos

More features? - especially for command-line options, WinRAR is one of the most fully-fledged compressors I've come around. And it supports encryption, NTFS streams, and NTFS security attributes... not something you see in every compressor!

What is it you want, really?

[kalos]

I tested 7z and I didn't like it

examples of what I want:
1) automaticaly move to tray when extracting (without having to click 'background' in winrar)
2) option to delete or not archives after succesful extraction to be at hand (and not in second tab, as in winrar)

but I won't compromise speed and reliability, I wont risk to loss data

[yksyks]

I can recommend SecureZIP, discussed here.

[Cuffy]

I would suggest you all take a look at IZarc! I was shocked when it wasn't mentioned here.
I wouldn't swap my copy of IZarc for a farm down south.
.rar,ISO, you name it.............
http://izarc.org/donate.html

------

[Curt]

I will recommend AL-Zip because of the SPEED Extractor; it is the fastest unzipper to use - at least if most of your *download & unzip* operations goes to a default favourite directory. When your internet browser is asking what to do with this zip file you just have downloaded, click Open, and Explorer will open inside a new folder which already has the zip file's name, and also has the zip file's content, now unzipped!


Hmm.. was that understandable?    - I better quote the site!:

ALZip Speed Extractor
Faster than anything you've ever experienced before, the new Speed Extractor in ALZip is the world's fastest way to extract your archives.

See it in action!
Video: ALZip Speed Extractor (2:55) Edit: Video seems to be down or not yet uploaded
Video: ALZip Speed Extractor - Show Menu (1:04) Edit: Video seems to be down or not yet uploaded


Simply double-click on a ZIP archive and ALZip will automatically extract the file(s) into your preferred default folder. This default folder can be pre-defined in ALZip's preferences.

The ALZip Speed Extractor gives you three distinct speed levels:


 
Open with ALZip = Normal 
Extract to My Default Folder = FASTEST! 
Show Menu = Super fast 

----- much more>

Hmm.. was that understandable?    - You better read more: "FEATURES"
- and follow the many links!

ALZip    FREE for home users! 

[kalos]

that's nice

I always wanted a program to monitor my download folder and extract archive files that pop in