I want to create an archive, through a program I am writing in C#, and later decompress it.
The archive will contain folders from completely different locations, grouped on 3 major subdivisions.
Basically, group A can have folders \x\y\z, \x\y\m, \x\p\q, group B can have folders \x\p\r, \x\y\t... So the original location can give only slight indication of the division, I can't use the path for grouping.
I was hoping that I can use 7z options to place folders in different folders inside the zip, but I couldn't find any such options, so I thought I will create 3 zips inside one big zip.
The problem I see is, the amount of data is big (hundreds, thousands of GB) and as far as I know, zip over zip is not a great idea. (data types: mostly image type, could be tif or other uncompressed formats, but may also be jpg)
It would be actually great if I could do zip over rar... But 7z doesn't use rar on compression, only on decompression.
I don't want to have to install multiple programs - I will only install 7z.
7z has, for packing, the following options (from their site): 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM. I would use one of them for the inner archives and then the 7z option for the outer archive.
What is the best option ? (to get a better archive that doesn't create a bigger zip than by just doing it all in one pass)
Edit: Windows !