Yes, you can figure out how much space a bunch of zips take up before they actually open.
Yes, you can figure out how much space a bunch of zips take up before they actually open.
How do I figure out how much space those zipped things actually take up so I can pick a bigger hard drive? I have way too many zip files that are bigger than their little packages themselves, covering all kinds of sizes. I need to know the total size before I buy an extra hdd and start unzipping them.
I think OP is asking for a fast way to check how big all those zip files are without opening them one by one. Imagine you have thousands of zips on your drive in folders, and you want their total size without clicking each file individually. I don't think that's possible. You *should* be able to get this info because the zip format keeps the original file size as a record inside the package. But no tool is available yet for looking at these records across all zips (kinda like a windirstat for zip files). bigpinkdragon286 : Bear in mind, you will need extra space on your drive to unzip them because hard drives aren't perfect. Files don't fill up storage spots perfectly and leave gaps overhangs. Due to
I think there is no easy way to figure out exactly how much free space you need for a full uncompressed folder using just Windows 10. You can certainly check each downloaded file and see its size, but if one archive has more than one file, you have to add those sizes together yourself. With WinRAR or 7-Zip , both tools are available for free as long as they work right now. Keep in mind that your hard drive needs a little extra room because the computer cannot use every single bit of space perfectly; files leave some empty spots behind called overhangs. Because of this, the size shown on your file is often smaller than what it takes up when you actually put it there. If you want to get a new drive that has just enough room for all your archives without any extra unused space, I suggest buying one 5% or 10% larger than you think you need so you don't run into problems with leftover space on the disk stopping you from saving everything you wanted.
I think OP is asking for a fast and simple trick to get this right for many zip files. Imagine he has a thousand zip files all over different subfolders on his hard drive, and he wants to know how big their original uncompressed data actually is without having to click on every single file one by one. I don't think you can do that easily. You should be able to, because the Zip format saves the size of each file as a note (metadata). But I haven't found a tool for reading this notes across all those zip files (it's kind like WindRuler for Zip files). bigpinkdragon286 : Just remember that you will need more space on your target drive to open the files because computers aren't perfect at using storage spots. Files don't always fit perfectly into their little boxes, so they might have some extra room left over (overhang). Because of this, the size of a file and its actual size on the disk are often slightly different. If you want to use a drive that only holds what your archives contain, I would suggest buying a new drive that is 5% to 10% bigger just to avoid problems with this overhang stopping you from storing everything you wanted. The extra space needed is about half of one cluster size (which is usually 4K for NTFS) times how many files you have. So for a hundred thousand files, it would be around 200 MB. For ten million files, it could be around 20 GB. This is why storing lots of small files inside zip folders helps save space. It also lets opening folders go faster if those thousands of small files are in one big file (Windows Explorer has to read things like icons for each file every time you open a folder). Although I would suggest getting a drive at least twice as big as you need right now so that it stays up-to-date later. Otherwise, maybe in a year or two you'll be looking for yet another new drive.
Solandri: Honestly, I think OP needs a quick and easy way to check the size of many ZIP files at once. Imagine he has thousands of zip files all over different folders on his hard drive. How can he figure out their total uncompressed size without clicking on each one? I don't think that's possible. You should be able to, because the ZIP format saves the original file size as a record inside it. But I haven't found any tool for reading those records across many files at once (kinda like Windirstat but for ZIPs). Right. You might write a PowerShell script to do this, but nobody sells that already built-in software. Just buy a bigger hard drive.
I wrote a simple program that shows how big your .zip files are without any compression, just like they were originally. It works well with the .NET tools and is really easy to use. If you want to try it out, download this tool here: ShowZipSize. You probably need to run it from Windows Explorer first since it's a special file type.
I wrote a little program to tell you how big uncompressed .zip files are because I liked finding these problems and they work well on .NET. Anyone who wants it can get the tool here: ShowZipSize You probably need to run it using Windows Explorer, which means unblocking the file. that's basically what I needed. wow, my files seem like .7z files though any way to pick that type from your launcher? thanks for all your replies