Can i compress 22GB down to 4.7GB without damaging files?

Question

I have some videos that i have put on to DVD but i do not want to get rid of the original files on my computer just in case. but the problem is i only have so much space and 22gb worth of space is troublesome... i have never compressed anything before and am afraid of doing it because i know there is a chance for data loss in compression... what is the smallest i can make 22gb and achieve loss less compression? What programs do i need and can it be done?

Answer 1

You cannot compress 22 GBs to 4.7 GBs coz it'll deteriorate the video quality n may cause loss of data as well.

However, you can use Winrar or Winzip to compress it. Winrar is more preferable.

You can also use an external hard disc to store your data.

Answer 2

Quick english explanation on how compression works,

Right now, as I'm typing to you, there are only so many letters and numbers and symbols I am likely to use. Stuff like this compresses really easily for that reason; I can make a tiny dictionary of every symbol (probably most of the letters A-Z, most of those lowercase, and a few punctuation symbols), and the dictionary size is usually a good indicator of how well you'll be able to compress.

Now consider a computer program. Have you ever tried to open up an exe file in notepad? Chances are you saw a lot of weird symbols (or plain rectangles depending on your font) that had no meaning to you. The dictionary for anything your computer reads, is huge. Videos, binary files, etc. don't compress very well for that reason.

What you CAN do is find a compression format like 7z that lets you split archives into 4.7 gig chunks, burn them to DVD, and recombine them when you need them. You can also use utilities like "split" (I'm sure there's free windows tools that do the same thing) to just cut the file up into chunks without compressing it, if you want.

Either way, cutting the file up into pieces is going to be your best bet for getting 22 gigs onto dvd.

Answer 3

There is no loss of data when compressing the data. Given that these are video files, I would say you can not bring them from 22GB to 4.7GB. Use WinRar or 7zip compression utilities to compress it and then use multiple DVDs to keep these files.