BackUp File Zip Utility

[cricketer1]

Does anyone know of a Zip utility to zip SQL server DB backup files? It is not the regular Winzip or PKzip?

cricketer1

 

[JayKusch]

arczip is another backup utility. what is the file extension on the backup files( ie. backupfile.* ... what is the * ... a .zip, .arc, .gzp?) Thanks

J. Kusch

 

[cricketer1]

the file extension for MS SQL Server data backup file is .BAK

 

[JayKusch]

I'm sorry ... i misread your post. I thought you had a group of files that you knew were SQL backup files, .bak, but they had been zipped up by a third party zip utility.

Reading your statement of ... It is not the regular Winzip or PKzip? lead me to beleive that you were not sure of the exact utility that was used to zip up your already created .bak files and that you were asking what other types of zip utilities might have created these files.

Thas is the reason i asked what the file extension was. a .zip file is of course PKZip, an .arc file is arczip and i thought if we had the zip files extension, we could figure out what zip utility created it.

So are you asking what other utilities are available, besides PKZip, to zip/compress SQL Server backup files?

Thanks

J. Kusch

 

[MeanGreen]

The BAK file is a file created during the Backup Process within SQL Server. Normally, your standard ZIP utility should be able to compress the file a little more, but not much. When you backup the file to tape, you can turn on compression and that may help reduce the size as well. What is it you are trying to do?
While zipping, arcing, or aceing are utilities for compressing files, usually database backups are too large and the compression routines run out of memory when trying to compress the files. Another method of backing up databases is use a third party software package to backup the database even when users are in.
Another alternative is to sp_detach_db, copy the "MDF" file, and then sp_attach_db. This gives you the most bang for your buck since with this file you can take it and mount it on another server with very few problems. Only real problem would be the security. With the "MDF" file, you could also try to zip it as well.
But back to the original question, why are you trying to zip the BAK file?

 

[cricketer1]

I wanted to conserve some disk space by zippping some of my backup files. The reason I have a few on my disk is that my company is in process of developing a datawarehouse and everytime new data is added we take a backup before the additions/update incase we discover at some later point that we need to do something differently or a other problems. I am keeping 3 backups and each is about 20-30 Gigs. Any sugesstions here?

Thanks

 

[MeanGreen]

Only suggestion I would make is write them off to tape and store them. Make 2 copies if you need to.

Good luck.

 

[JPMorgan]

I am currently doing a similar task and have found that using WinZip to further compress the .BAK file works great. In my experience, depending on datatypes and all, WinZip's maximum compression takes the size of the .BAK file down about 90% to a 10th of what the .BAK was. Using your example, Winzip would/could shrink these files down to 2 or 3 Gigs.

To conserve space on your Hard drive, I would zip the .BAK files spanning across 3 or 4 CD-R's until you need them in the future.

Hope this helps!

 

[cricketer1]

Doesn't WinZip have a maximum capacity of 4Gigs? I don't think it will be able handle a 29-Gig .bak file. I guess I have to resort to regular tape backups for now. If anyone comes up with a better idea or discover's a tool to zip huge .bak files, please share.

Thanks for everybody's input.
cricketer1