Best Way To Compress Files?

[jjmcray]

What's the best format or whatever to compress files as small as possible? I have a site with at least 1 GB of storage used up, and when I download backups, the backup file is only 100-200 MB. The backups are in .gzip format, but I have no clue how to do that on an actual computer.

[Blahages]

What's the best format or whatever to compress files as small as possible? I have a site with at least 1 GB of storage used up, and when I download backups, the backup file is only 100-200 MB. The backups are in .gzip format, but I have no clue how to do that on an actual computer.

The Best Format for Compressing Files? I think it kind of depends on the Contents of the Files being Compressed, But, I've found RAR files to have a slightly higher compression rate than .ZIP and some others.

But, for the Sake of Randomness, I'll Compress a Random Folder of Files that I have with Several Different Methods. I downloaded the Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 Linux Tar.bz2 Archive and Extracted it, and Re-compressed that Folder with Several Methods. Here's the Results:

Uncompressed: 24.7MB (Approx. 25,292KB)
Original Tar.bz2: 8,858KB
Rar Archive (WinRAR): 7,377KB
7z (7-Zip) Archive: 7,183KB
Zip Archive (Using WinRAR): 9,540KB
Zip Archive (Using 7-Zip): 8,688KB
Tar.bz2 Archive (Using Linux): 8,875KB
Tar.gz (Gzip Archive (Linux)): 9,512KB

.Rar and .7z Formats have always been my choice.

As for Extracting them, You should be able to use Universal Extractor (http://uniextract.c1pher.com/uniextract15.exe) for extracting Gzip Files (Although you can use 7-Zip), and Most other Compressed Files. As for Creating them, you can use 7-Zip (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sevenzip/7z456.exe). You'll have to use it to create a Tar Archive First, though, by right clicking on the Selection you want to Compress, hit "7-Zip," and Hit "Add to Archive." Select "Tar" in the "Archive Format" Section. Then You do the same, but this time Selecting GZip Instead of Tar from the Archive Format Selection to Create the Gziped File.

[jjmcray]

Well, I know how to open the gzip files, but what I meant was I didn't know how to extract it to like one 10th of its original size.