compressing large file into several small files

Hi, Simon.

Actually, what it sounds like you want to do is take a large file and break it up into several compressed files that can later be rejoined.

Two ideas for you:

1. Put a copy of the file in a folder of its own, then create a disk image of that folder. You can then create a segmented disk image using the segment verb of the hditutil command in Terminal. Disk Utility provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to some of the functions in hdiutil, but unfortunately not the segment verb, so you have to use hditutil in Terminal to segment a disk image.

2. If you have StuffIt Deluxe, you can create a segmented archive. This takes one large StuffIt archive and breaks it into smaller segments of a size you define.

2.1. You first make a StuffIt archive of the large file, then use StuffIt's Segment function to break this into segments.

2.2. Copying all the segments back to your hard drive and Unstuffing the first segment (which is readily identifiable) will unpack all the segments and recreate the original, large file.

I'm not sure if StufIt Standard Edition supports creating segmented archives, but I know StuffIt Deluxe does as I have that product.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

When I want to split a file into segments I use the command line application split. To join them I use the command line application cat.

For people not command line savvy there's the application Split&Concat:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/

Stuffit Deluxe will segment compressed archives into multiple segments. It is made by Allume.

Another solution, which is free, is Chop DMG, which I haven't tried:

http://freespace.virgin.net/jeremy.dronfield/skoobysoft/utilities/utilities.html

If you create a disk image with disk utility of the compressed file, then you might be able to chop the dmg into several segments.

Simon, I wouldn't use anything freeware or shareware. For safety purposes use the tried, tested and true software that Dr. Smoke suggested. Thousands of MAC users stand behind it. But if the file is 5 gigs, you need only compress it down to 4.7 to fit on a DVD. 300 Megs isn't hard to compress!

Here is the website.
http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html

And the softare is not very costly.