Cutting Down Files

[JM]

...or whatever you call it.

I have a copy of Serenity at 720p (.mkv), so yeah, it's pretty huge (almost 7 GB). Thing is, I'm reformatting my computer and such a large file won't transfer over to my external hard drive. How do I compress it to a smaller size, or slice it into several different smaller parts?

[Xepher]

Recoding the video itself is fairly complicated. If you just need it transfered, two options. One, reformat your external drive as NTFS (assuming you're using windows) because it can support single files larger than 4GB, whereas FAT32 (what most drives use by default) can't. Other option is using winzip or winrar, and make a multi-part archive. This basically splits the file into pieces, and at the other end, you can use it again to extract the original file from the parts.

[Databits]

However, in any compression method, make sure that you actually test the archive. Especially with multi-part archives, because if a single portion becomes corrupted you lose it all.

[sagebrush]

Slice-and-Save: http://www.rtsoftware.org/

[JM]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

I actually ended up using WinRAR to split it up into multiple .rar files. My friend was directing me over IM, so I'm not sure if I got it just right, but we'll see when I piece it all back together. (Wish me luck.)