Gazette reader Lai C. writes:

Dear Dennis,

I have recently organized all of my critical files into 1 single folder. The rationale for organizing in this manner is so that it is easy for me to locate my files for the purpose of backing them up onto CD recordable.

My Critical File Folder contains over 5 gigabytes (GB) worth of data - with some files being quite large in size. Ideally, I would like to store all the files ‘perfectly’ onto 8 CDs in order to save time and media (hint: 8 CDs x 700 megabytes each = 5.6 gigabytes, which is enough to store the backup folder). The way things are looking, I may end up having to use 14 CDs to get the job done because some files are so large that I can’t fit more than 1 file per disc. This ends up being a big waste of media (and time).

Is there a software program that I can use to split the files according to the CD capacity and burn them directly to disc?

My response:

Normally, when a file is split for the purpose of storing it onto backup medium, it is first compressed [in order to save space] and then the data is re-written into another file format, called an” archive” (click here to see an example picture of a .ZIP archive).

The ability to split a file (or files) across an archive is referred to as “creating a multi-volume set.” Similarly, the ability to save the archive onto multiple CDs so that all the written data utilizes an enire CD (resulting in minimal wasted space during a backup) is referred to as “spanning an archive.”

A word of warning, however…

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Split large files for backup onto CD?]

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