Is compressing safe for archiving?

[GiSWiG]

I had a friend of mine backup my Gamecube discs because he has a compatible drive. This question is only for Gamecube ISOs (though it would be helpfull for others who backup Wii games).

Is using the compression feature ok for archiving?

I don't have a Blu-Ray burner yet and you can't trust hard drives to last forever. I don't use DVD-DL for archiving for stability issues. I'm already looking at about 25+ DVDs (Verbatim DVD+R). 7Zip sometimes gives good results, but not always.

Should I suck it up an stick with ISOs, lots of DVDs, lots of time and find a new box?

Thanks!

(If this is already answered, I couldn't find it so a link to a post that answers this question would be fine)

[AnyOldName3]

If the compression is lossless then it is perfectly fine as long as you decompress before playing if done through 7zip/winrar etc.. If the compression involves scrubbing unused parts from the iso then it can cause minor problems, but shouldn't in most cases.

[GiSWiG]

(04-12-2012, 11:51 PM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: If the compression is lossless then it is perfectly fine as long as you decompress before playing if done through 7zip/winrar etc.. If the compression involves scrubbing unused parts from the iso then it can cause minor problems, but shouldn't in most cases.

I meant the compression feature in Dolphin. Basically, compress them there and burn those ISOs/gcm files to disc for storage, not play from. Will those copies be ok, especially if using Dolphin to uncompress them later to either play in Dolphin or to burn for running on a physical GC/Wii.
Does Dolphin scrub?

[AnyOldName3]

It scrubs Wii disks, as the whole thing is encrypted, so the non-data sections look like data to compressors, so must be removed to make any difference. There is a small risk, though, so don't go losing the originals and bricking your Wii, as you may need to replace them later on. it can compress GameCube images losslessly.

[GiSWiG]

(04-13-2012, 03:16 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: It scrubs Wii disks, as the whole thing is encrypted, so the non-data sections look like data to compressors, so must be removed to make any difference. There is a small risk, though, so don't go losing the originals and bricking your Wii, as you may need to replace them later on. it can compress GameCube images losslessly.

It can or it does compress GameCube losslessly? Is there custom settings for the compression? I didn't see any in the GUI.

Thanks!

[AnyOldName3]

I think it does, but I have no GameCube games to test with. If it is doing it losslessly you'll see similar levels of compression with 7zip.

[Zee530]

1.2GB GC games go as low 800MB

[ExtremeDude2]

(04-13-2012, 04:15 AM)Zee530 Wrote: 1.2GB GC games go as low 800MB

Heck, I've seen wii games at less than 250MB

[GiSWiG]

Yeah, Compressions vary widely... Check out the Harvest Moons!
Of course all of these are 1,425,760 KB uncompressed

Animal Crossing
Dolphin gcz 1,416,668 KB
7zip Ultra 1,429,654 KB

Baldur's Gate
Dolphin gcz 994,943 KB
7zip Ultra 717,924 KB

Beyond Good and Evil
Dolphin gcz 1,268,935 KB
7zip Ultra 1,024,733 KB
Zip Normal 1,245,262 KB

Harvest Moon - A Wonderful Life
Dolphin gcz 392,230 KB
7zip Ultra 192,506 KB
Zip Normal 380,223 KB

Harvest Moon - Magical Melody
Dolphin gcz 88,854 KB
7zip Ultra 29,990 KB
Zip Normal 75,245 KB

What I don't get is why Dolphin just doesn't use zip support like almost all other emulators. The numbers between GCZ and normal level ZIP are so close. Problem with GCZ, I must decompress using Dolphin and GCZ is not a standard compression format.

I would have to say that GCZ does do lossless. MD5-Checksums are the same between the original and a compressed then decompressed file. With that in mind, I'd assume safe.
Anyone care to try with a Wii game?

[Zee530]

I once compressed my twilight princess iso for the wii, used it for a couple of months then uncompressed back to the original size, didnt have any issues