7z vs. WinRAR file compression programs

Steve Hernandez — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:17:52 +0000

And the winner is…. 7z, consistently.

I’ll add more on my review later, but needless to say, I’m switching from WinRAR to 7z. To be honest, I’ve used WinRAR for the past 10 years or so and wanted it to be the best. While great, it’s not the best, 7z (in my tests which would mimic my use, this is in no way scientific) beat WinRAR in almost all the scenarios, except for JPG images (I believe WinRAR has a special algorithm for that, while 7z does not, but don’t quote me). Below are the restuls and the set ups.

The first 2 tests are of the first, which consists of all my files from my collegiate carreer (undergraduate, masters, doctoral and the undergraduate work for my fiance), including powerpoints, images, word documents, pdf, movies, images, sound files, zip files, etc. There’s a good assortment of files.

The second is of a very large website and intranet I’ve designed and managed, consisting of an even larger mix of files. I will update the file types soon.

	7z	WinRAR
Files	4639	4639
Start Size	1455 MB	1455 MB
Sub-Folders	358	358
Setting	Ultra / LZMA	Best
Dictionary Size	64 MB (Default)	4096 KB (Default)
Drives	E:\ (Read); E:\ (Write)	E:\ (Read); E:\ (Write)

Final Size	1132 MB	1237 MB
Time	20	19
Ratio	76%	83%
Difference	7% / 105 MB	-

	7z	WinRAR
Files	34143	34143
Start Size	1314 MB	1314 MB
Sub-Folders	3614	3614
Setting	Ultra / LZMA	Best
Dictionary Size	64 MB (Default)	4096 KB (Default)
Drives	E:\ (Read); D:\ (Write)	E:\ (Read); D:\ (Write)

Final Size	735 MB	924 MB
Time	18.8	19.25
Ratio	53%	67%
Difference	14% / 189 MB	-

Test	Files	Type	Size
1	16	PDF	2.59MB
2	5	JPG	7.92MB
3	42	DOC(19)/DOCX(23)	21.3MB

7z – LDMZ			7z – ZIP
Test	Ratio	Final Size	Test	Ratio	Final Size
1	76%	1.98MB	1	80%	2.08MB
2	72%	5.78MB	2	75%	6.01MB
3	76%	16.3MB	3	87%	18.7MB

WinRAR – RAR			WinRAR – ZIP
Test	Ratio	Final Size	Test	Ratio	Final Size
1	80%	2.08MB	1	80%	2.09MB
2	72%	5.74MB	2	76%	6.04MB
3	87%	18.6MB	3	88%	18.8MB

SQL Server Express 2005 will not install: Error 1706

Steve Hernandez — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:10:45 +0000

An installaton package for the product Microsoft SQL Server Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package ‘sqlncli.msi’

Open the downloaded executable with WinZip / WinRAR, etc. OR run the following command from a command prompt: SQLEXPR.EXE /x:c:\sqlexprtmp

Find the installer package sqlncli.msi and run it.

When prompted, select Uninstall and allow the uninstallation to complete.

Re-run the SQLEXPR.EXE installation executable. No reboot is required.

SteveOH » WinZIP

7z vs. WinRAR file compression programs

SQL Server Express 2005 will not install: Error 1706