Archive - what is it? Types of archives

Archiving, or compressing files, is a special process that reduces the amount of free space on the drive that the file occupies. To date, there is a fairly large variety of special utilities for data compression. However, many do not even understand what the archive is. What is the archive and archiving, we will consider in this article.

It should be noted right away that this article is about computer archives, not departmental or any other. The departmental archive is a topic for a separate article, since it has nothing to do with the virtual one.

What is an archive?

Many people do not even know what the advantages of this process are. For those who are asked the question: "Archive - what is it and why is it needed?" - there is a fairly simple explanation.

The archive is a kind of analogue folder in which several files are stored. However, in order to open these files or copy them to some other folder, you must first unzip. What sometimes takes quite a lot of time. It is worth noting that the time it takes to extract files from a specific archive directly depends on how the archive is performed, how powerful the computer, and also the files of what volume will be extracted.

Why are you archiving?

Increasing the available amount of data is the main purpose of the archive. What is the amount of data and how important it is for modern users, it is hardly necessary for someone to explain. Even the constant development of modern storage devices and all kinds of information carriers does not allow satisfying the needs of many people.

The second purpose of the archive is to simplify the transfer of data. To date, far from all the Internet has a sufficiently high speed for fast file transfer, so their volume is of great importance. Taking into account the fact that in the majority of cases information is downloaded through specialized file sharing, it takes a double time to translate files from one computer to another. First to download to the exchanger, and then for download directly to the user's computer.

That's why it's much easier to transfer files by first putting them in a standard archive. What is the archive, already mentioned above.

How to hang?

To date, there is no difficulty in finding specialized archivers, each of which differs in its own set of capabilities. Some include only basic functions, while others provide more options, including checking files for all sorts of viruses or the ability to view information of a different type without extracting it from the archive. It should be noted that a sufficiently large number of programs offers the user to select a certain compression ratio, forming the so-called self-extracting archives.

The most common versions of archives to date are considered to be such as Zip and RAR. Such archivers are initially installed on virtually all computers and are actively developing.

Data extraction and archiving

The user has the opportunity to completely choose a name for his future archive, as well as determine which is better to use the extension and method of compression. In the archive there is a certain number of files and different folders, and for unpacking you just need to specify the path to the folder to which the extraction will be performed. As mentioned above, some modern programs allow for previewing certain files in the "Read Only" mode.

Recently, such a specialized function as the creation of self-extracting archives has been widely used. Self-extracting file-archive is a specialized type that allows you to extract files without using any additional utilities. After all, to date, not all computers are installed archivers, so you need to somehow provide the ability to extract information to such users. By itself, this option is a standard .exe file that includes directly encrypted data, as well as a special installation module.

How to restore archives after they are damaged?

The archive of documents is far from the safest option for storing a large amount of information. Since due to various reasons such situation may occur that it will be damaged and it will be impossible to extract files from it. In most cases, such problems arise due to the fact that during the download of the archive, the user disappeared from the connection or the archive was damaged due to the impact of the standard virus program on it.

Modern developers could get out of this situation by using the special function "Leave damaged files on the disk", as well as one more additional function - "Add information for recovery". Thus, you can significantly increase the chances that eventually the unpacking of the archive will be successful and the user will have the opportunity to use the data he needs.

How to protect yourself from unauthorized access?

Another useful and popular enough function is the use of passwords that allow you to protect the archive from prying eyes, excluding the possibility of viewing it. It will not be possible to unpack it, providing effective protection of confidential and commercial information. Thus, you can archive certain data not only to reduce their volume or to simplify transportation, but also to hide them from other people's eyes. It is especially recommended to do this to those people who store important confidential information on the work computer, when there is a risk that someone else can see it.

Continuous archive

Among other things, special attention should be given to such a type as a continuous archive. A continuous archive in a computer is a set of files that represent a serial stream of information. In this case, the degree of compression increases by an order of magnitude . However, the update, as well as the subsequent unpacking of the archive, are carried out for a longer time. And you need to understand correctly that if one of the files in such archive gets any damage, then in this case there will be no possibility of information recovery. It is for this reason that it is best to archive in such a way that the information can eventually be restored.

Thus, continuous archiving is rarely used by modern companies. The archive of the organization is first and foremost a secure information store, which will be protected from accidental deletion, as well as prying eyes, so using a continuous archive in this role, which can ultimately completely destroy files, is not the best option.