Compress to zip function stuck.

Question

Level 1

6 points

Compress to zip function stuck.

I'm attempting to compress some old or rarely used items to a zip file. The process gets about 80% finished, then gets stuck. It's been showing this message...

1.96GB of 2.55GB - About 15 minutes

for about the last 1/2 hour. No change in any of the numbers. Any ideas why this got stuck and what can be done to get it moving again?

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jun 3, 2009 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

RayNewbie

Level 5

6,810 points

Jun 3, 2009 10:16 AM in response to MattSh

I would break the job up into smaller zips. See if you can separate the items into 3 folders of 1 GB each, and make 3 zips.

I don't know if there are hard limits on the Compress utility, though 1.96 is a nice round number that suggests a limit. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if you've made larger zips in the past. The limit might depend on available memory. For example, you may have installed something new or updated your system since then. You could try shutting down any other apps, or you could try making a dmg instead. My advice would be not to waste time trying to make a bigger archive. 1 GB is plenty.

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Answer 2

MattSh Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 13, 2009 7:06 AM in response to RayNewbie

I'm not sure that was exactly it. I think it may have been related to some obscure file deep in the zip process that may have been in use somehow. Maybe. But at least when I do smaller zips, it does make it easier to discover where the offending file, etc, might be located.

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Answer 3

Jun 15, 2009 6:51 AM in response to MattSh

It has to do with the Zip (and gZip) version that ships with Leopard - v 2.32 and v5.52 respectively, with the latest 10.5.7 update; neither of these can handle creating/expanding archives of more than 2g in size.

If I can piggyback this thread, I would love to find a simple way of updating both to versions 3 and 6 respectively. For the time being I am using macports client-side, but things get a bit more complicated server-side (inter-apllication dependencies).

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