Advice Needed: Optical Storage

[y0himba]

Here is the situation:

I purchased a game from Direct2Drive.  The game is 11.1gb on my HDD.  Purchasing another HDD is not an option, purchasing a portable HDD is not an option. Purchasing anything or more storage media is not an option.

I need to store this game on either regular 4gb DVD media or 8gb DVD media.

I would prefer to compress the files to one 8gb DVD.  If not, then I need a FREE or OPEN SOURCE program to split the files between DVDs and allow me to run setup from the first DVD then prompt for the second, or automatically split the files to span 4gb or 8gb DVDs for easy burning and I can copy them to HDD if I need to reinstall the game.

Any suggestions?

[f0dder]

Splitting the files and being able to run setup from one disc and prompt from the next is - generally - not going to work. Might get it working for specific stuff if you can find tools for the specific installer used, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Your general best bet is simply to use an archiver to do compression+split. Sucks having to decompress to HDD first, but it's the only thing I've found to work reliably.

This is also one of the reasons I ditched optical media a few years ago, it simply sucks in just about every way compared to external HDD storage. Might be slightly cheaper, but that's their only saving grace.

[skwire]

If it's a financial situation that's preventing you from using/purchasing another hard drive (as opposed to a computer with full slots or something), I'd be happy to send you a hard drive from the pile on my workbench.  Obviously, no warranties, guarantees, etc.  =]  Let me know if that's cool with you.

[JavaJones]

I second what skwire said. I have drives from 120GB up to 500GB just sorta sitting here, heh. I mean I have plans for some, eventually, maybe, but I have a few to spare...

- Oshyan

[4wd]

If the game uses Steam, then you can use it to back up the game to DVD after it's installed - it will split it up onto separate DVDs, (or user specified size), and provide an executable on them to reinstall it.  You could just back it up to the ISOs, then store those on a separate HDD mounting them to restore when necessary.

This is what I've done with CoD: Black Ops - downloaded from D2D, installed and then backed up using Steam.

[cmpm]

You could create a partition on your current hard drive, and store it there.
Unless a failing hard drive is the problem.

[CWuestefeld]

What everybody else said.

But with that in mind, you still need a way to slice up the file into 2 or 3 chunks (I would suggest aiming for 4GB chunks, as the media is much cheaper). I suggest you look at 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/). This supports several archive formats that can handle large files and multiple sections. ZIP format does not (afaik), but its native "7z" format will, plus it offers better compression and is *almost* a standard these days.

[Gwen7]

why not use a usb flash drive? you can find 8Gb versions at any major office discount outlet for around $12. ordering online is cheaper still. i just bought three name-brand "eights" on 'special' for $8 each.