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It's just a simple problem that I'm having. I have about 500 RAR archive files and 300 ZIP files which I want to burn on DVD and give to someone else. Basically, these are 800 different archives. Not a real problem, but I would like to have them all in the same file format, thus either 800 ZIP files or 800 RAR files. (Or better: have both!)

Now, the simple solution would be to extract every archive and then compress them again to the new format. Yep, that's one way...

I am thinking of a better solution where some tool is converting archives directly without having to extract to temporary files first! Does such a solution exist already? (Side question: does it also support other archive formats?)

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Just so you know. The way most lossless data compression works the data must be decompressed before it can be recompressed in a different format. This may happen behind the scenes using only RAM or using temporary files written to disk but it is happening. – Kenneth Cochran Jul 29 '09 at 12:58
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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

There are probably several ways to doing this, but I'm presuming you have WinRar installed on your computer so:

  • Start Winrar

  • Tools > Convert Archive (or Alt + Q)

  • Add the folder where the files you want to convert are (this will parse through and add all archives you have specified in the checkbox area)

  • Click Compression

  • Choose Archive Format: RAR or ZIP

  • OK

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how did ytou get Alt + Q to look like that? – Petey B Jul 29 '09 at 17:13
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Wrap it up with <kbd>key</kbd> – pavsaund Jul 29 '09 at 19:13
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up vote 6 down vote

When installing WinRar there's an option to customize the Explorer context menu. If you look around in there, you'll see an option for "Convert archive". Using this you could convert the ZIPs to RARs or vice versa with just a select a bunch, right click, convert.

Per pavsaund's comment, you can also enable this after WinRar is installed by going to:
Options -> Settings -> Integration -> Context Menu Items... -> Check "Convert archive..."

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+1 as is less steps than pavsaund solution :) – Wayne Jul 29 '09 at 11:29
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Options > Settings > Integration > Context Menu Items... > Check "Convert archive.." – pavsaund Jul 29 '09 at 11:31
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+1 better than my solution, just have to enable the feature – pavsaund Jul 29 '09 at 11:32
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