PA 7z Large File Problems

[jjarman]

Hello,

I am trying to use Power Archiver to 7z (ultra) a 4.3gb file.

The percent goes to 100% after the first few hundred megs, then up to 200%, then resets back to 0%. Keeps looping until done. When finished (long time), the file looks okay, about 100mb less then winrar max. When I open the file, it is empty, with no entries showing.

So not only is the percentage tracking messed up when 7z large files, but also something else.

I have to backup a lot of files. Currenty I use WinRar at Max, but was hoping 7z would be an improvement. Hopefully these issues will be resolved as other then that, the product looks great!!!

Cheers,
Josh

[jjarman]

Additional Information:
PA 9.11.01
7-ZipDLL 3.12.0
WinXP

[spwolf]

What kind of file is it? And what % does go to 200%?
How large is your page file and free memory?

thanks,

[jjarman]

512mb actual ram, 1249mb pagefile, winxp managed.
4.3gb Data DVD iso image
When compressing the file the status percent bar and number reached 100% when the output file was only 150mb…for a breif second I was astounded that it had compressed it so small, and glanced back at the percentage and it was still climbinig…up to 200% when it went back to 0% both number and percent bar…kept looping like this until it was finished compressing the file. The file seemed to be about the right size, 100mb smaller then the winrar max output, but when I open it, I cannot see any files. It looks empty. It doesn’t show anything as it’s contents. Tried recompressing several times, same behavior and results.

So far my tests have been positive on smaller files, and i love the multi file format support, and the interface is plesent and usable.
It seems like a great program, only this strange problem.

Two other small question while I have your attention.
1. Does the encryption option affect compression ratios?
2. Can it repair any other archive formats besides zip?

I hadn’t heard of 7z before looking at your software, but I like that you support this format.

Thanks!

[spwolf]

1. Nope
2. Nope :-)

As to 7zip issue, are you compressing it via shell extensions or main PowerArchiver app?

thanks,

[jjarman]

Application:
Main PowerArchiver Application

Method:
Right clicked on the file and chose context menu option “Compress to 7-ZIP + Options”

Compressed 7z file was in same directory as iso file for test.
NTFS IDE hardrive.

Thanks.

[Pygalgia]

Hi,

I’m having the exact same problem when compressing large .iso’s to .7z files. Any luck fixing this?

thanks,
alex.

[jjarman]

Hello Alex,

I’m sorry to hear, yet also somewhat releived that I’m not the only one who experienced this.
I have not been able to resolve this issue yet.

spwolf was looking into the matter.
Not sure if he or she found anything though.

If anyone figures this out please update this thread.

Thanks!

[davidsplash]

its a problem with the 7zip.dll

[jjarman]

I know that this issue is related to 7-Zip (7z) only, so it makes sense that it is part of the 7zip.dll, but what does this mean for me as a user? Will it be fixed by Power Archiver soon or does that mean that it is an issue that the 7-Zip opensource project is working on, and Power Archiver needs to wait for them to fix this, then incorporate the new dll into their product? If the latter, does this mean a while before us users get a version without this issue? The reason I ask, is this is my primary use for the product and will affect whether or not the product is usable for my purposes. I appreciate any information you can provide.

Power Archiver seems like a wonderful app in all other respects. I’m already recommending it to my clients, for their purposes it will do everything they need, uncompress almost everything, and create new regualr zip files. For us power users it seems like a great tool as well, except for this one issue it has worked great.

Thanks for the help, it is apprecaited!!!

[spwolf]

Hi,

we are testing it right now to see where is the issue. We dont use Beta versions of 7zip but their official “stable” versions which are now behind their beta releases.

We will check it out more throughly and let you know. It is possible that this has been addressed in one of the newer 4.xx dll versions which we will start using with 9.5 release. But in any case, I will let you know once we find out more.

thanks,

[jjarman]

Thanks spwolf, I appreciate the information and help. Best of luck tracking down this issue.

[Pygalgia]

thanks for the updates.

alex.

[guido]

I have been testing with multiple ISO’s. All of them where above 4gb. One was even 8.1 GB.

They turned out fine. The only problem was that PA didn’t show the file inside. 7-Zip manager handled it fine.

Guido

[jjarman]

Am I understanding the results of your testing correcty?

Broken:
1. When 7z compressing large files in PowerArchiver, the status percent and status bar don’t work correctly.
2. When opening the large 7z files in PowerArchiver they appear empty.

Working:
1. The 7z files created by PowerArchiver are actually correct and not corrupted, and can be used and decompressed with the opensource 7-Zip Manager?

Further Questions:
1. Is this problem with all large files, or isolated to the compression of iso’s?
2. If so, does renaming the iso’s affect anything, or is it something about the data format itself?

Thanks for the information and test results.

[spwolf]

It seems to be problem between PowerArchiver and 7zip, when individual files inside archive are larger than 4 GB. Actual archive is created fine. We will check it out.

thanks,

[jjarman]

That makes sense.
Thanks again for the information, the response to this issue has been wonderful.

It is nice to know that there are companies out there like PowerArchiver that still care about their products and users. It shows, both in quality of product, and in response to issues.

Best of luck tracking this down!

Regards,
Josh

[spwolf]

Thanks for your kind words.

It seems that the issue is with 3.xx version of 7zip dll we use (last official release). There is nothing wrong with compression, but it seems that reading/listing/extracting single files larger than 4 GB inside of archive does not work properly. Actual reading/listing/extracting of archives larger than 4 GB works, as long as single files dont exceed this - so if you had 10 files at 2 GB inside an archive, it should work fine.

We will include newest 7zip 4.xx dll’s in upcoming 9.5 release, and add other 7zip features from that release (multivolume, as well as AES encryption).

thank you!

[jjarman]

I look forward to it.

[Stretchr]

@spwolf:

Thanks for your kind words.

It seems that the issue is with 3.xx version of 7zip dll we use (last official release). There is nothing wrong with compression, but it seems that reading/listing/extracting single files larger than 4 GB inside of archive does not work properly. Actual reading/listing/extracting of archives larger than 4 GB works, as long as single files dont exceed this - so if you had 10 files at 2 GB inside an archive, it should work fine.

We will include newest 7zip 4.xx dll’s in upcoming 9.5 release, and add other 7zip features from that release (multivolume, as well as AES encryption).

thank you!

I believe my 7z solid archive is being effected by this problem but my question is, until you’ve come out with the 9.5 version, how can I extract the archive? Within PA, it appears to be empty. When I try to extract to a directory, the new directory is created but remains empty. I need to access information in the archive but do not know how.

Thanks.
Stretchr

[jjarman]

You can use the free 7Zip manager to extract these files for now:
http://www.7-zip.org/
Although this program isn’t as good as PowerArchiver in my opinion, it will extract files from those apparenty empty 7z files.

I look forward to the next release of PowerArchiver resolving this issue as it truly is one of the very best archive managers available on the market.

Hope this helps you out.
Regards,
Joshua Jarman