...and in particular, don't use it to your desktop. And definitely don't try to create a split archive to your desktop. Most importantly, don't terminate the process mid-way through the archiving. File in question is a 100Mb video file, going into 19Mb segments...at least, that was the plan. /dir of the folder Basically, it had dumped all its internal workings onto the desktop - all 89,000 fragments, each virtually non-existent in size. Because of the way hard-drives write data, each >1Kb segment ended up taking an entire formatted block on the drive. Normally this'd just mean my system would lag like crap when accessing the folder containing all of them - but because it's on my desktop, anytime explorer.exe was running, it tried to gather info on all of them and display them on the desktop...meaning ten minutes of flooded CPU activity on bootup and anytime I tried to interact with the folder. I was staring at this for about 3 minutes: Yes, Windows...I'm sure I want to delete them. Processor activity generated: http://forums.bit-tech.net/album.php?albumid=35&pictureid=4663 http://forums.bit-tech.net/picture.php?albumid=35&pictureid=4664 Lesson learned - don't use 7-zip. Or perhaps it's "don't interact with Warcraft trailers"
He might have been uploading it to a hosting service which has file size limitations. That's about the only reason I can think of why one might want to try and 'compress' a file that's already been compressed into a video codec anyway.
But the real question... why a split archive!? Those haven't been useful for a decade. Oh, and before it's mentioned, "Eurgh, Rapidshare!"
Easier to recover from corruptions? Pretty much a usenet only thing now I guess but it does still happen. And I think the lesson would actually be, don't perform large file processes on your desktop!?
Split archive was for gmailing it. File in question was a WoW trailer. Honestly, read the OP before making snide remarks As soon as I have time I'll look into replicating the effect - tricking people into doing this could be entertaining. If you were a really horrible person, I mean - which I'm not.
Personally that's why I always use folders for my archiving... because one folder with 90k pieces is easier than on your desktop which might contain questionable folders...
