Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[negopus]

I was writing a DOS script using RAR command line to create RAR files that fit on a 4.7 GB DVD-R each. It happens that RAR stores file names in lower case into the archives.

I am not sure about Media Center 11.1 being able to recognize the file name in lower case when restoring the file. I have made some tests. When restoring a file with all lower case letters in its name, Media Center displays the file as missing (white document with a red cross on it), because the file name differs from that stored in the library. But when I click on the file in MC to start playing, is plays correctly, and its icon becomes the standard "musical note" from then on. MC can then "Rename file from properties", renaming the file to the correct initial value, with both upper and lower case characters in its name. So I cannot say that Media Center handles this (strange) case correctly.

Is anyone aware of this issue? Can the lower case problem be fixed (upgrading RAR?) or, at least, can Media Center handle these lower-cased files correctly?

The archiver version is RAR 3.20. In am not using the "-cl" option that converts file names in lower case.

[negopus]

I found that upgrading to RAR command line 3.60 does not solve the issue. File names still get lowercased. I am passing the directory name to RAR. If I pass each file name individually, the letter casing is preserved. There must be something with RAR (a design choice?) when using wildcards instead of explicit file names.

I have also found that RAR has problems with extended (non 32-127 ASCII) character, and rejects files when they contain extended characters.

Finally RAR has a 2 GB file limit, typical for software using 32 bit integers internally. This can be solved by making files 1/4 the size of a DVD-R, then filling each DVD-R with 4 files. By the way, ISO DVDs have the 2 GB file size limit. You have to use the UDF format to overcome that limitation.

In conclusion there are many issues in RAR that make it difficult to use it as a tool to prepare a backup on DVD-R, creating archive files (no compression) with the size of a DVD-R each.

[negopus]

I found that PKZIP command line is more suitable than RAR command line to create files that fit on a DVD-R. The file names are stored with the correct case.

PKZIP command line has the same 2 GB file limit as RAR command line. The estimate file size, found using the -preview option, is ANDed with the 31 least significant bits (0x7FFFFFFF), for example. You still have to create files that are 1/4 the size of a DVD-R, then fill each DVD-R with 4 files.

There are some small problems:
- There is no option to write a log file. You have to redirect the DOS shell output using >. The resulting file contains some backspace characters (ASCII code 8 ).
- Using DOS redirection does not capture error messages that are written to stderr (this is a DOS problem, not a PKZIP one).
- There is no option to verify files against the source after compression.

PKZIP command line is useable after all. It is also faster than NTBACKUP (that does not split the output file however). It takes about 2/3 of the time, on the same hard disk and with the same files.