ISO compression help

[thaslacker]

Hi again. I'm having an issue converting my games and putting them on my E-HD. I have searched but arrive at nothing concrete.

The problem is, I've got 1.8T worth of videos, games music on this thing from collecting over the years and its in FAT32 format (I know...stupid me). Now Ive got a nice computer rig, but my space is becoming limited!! Since I'm limited to 3.9999...999 ect GB per file, I was looking into compression.

When I converted my copy of Suikoden III into iso it was 4.0GB, and Star ocean i Believe was around the same for the first part. Which is just slightly too big for a fat32 format. Also Gran Turismo 4 is pretty large too i believe.

Ive heard that Linuz ISO may be able to help me but I don't want to waste my time with something that may make me have to re - rip game images, thus why I am here. I want to see if this is possible, what the issues may be so I can do this the right way. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

(Also I saw a suggestion to compress in advanced properties. The only issue with this is that it takes forever to complete, and when it is finished, the size of the bytes stays the exact same.) <---Confusing

Thanks in advance for the help pcsx2 community!!

[miseru99]

NTSC compression show same file size, but actually the space it takes on the disk is decreased(Depending on a game I have from like 200mb to even 4 gb smaller file - ofc the huge compression happens only on games which keep empty data as a very strange and completely useless way of anti-copy protection), you have to check the file properties to see the result.
It's nice way to fit more backups to the disk and keep full functionality of the iso.
Linuz iso has only slightly higher compression and kills using the backups's normally soo it's not recommended:], if you have slow cpu the compression will actually take longer time than ntsc one and really the files will not be much smaller, pretty much same and much more bothersome to use unless you use a launcher you'll have to change iso's using plugin each time.

[jesalvein]

linuziso will actually compress your iso in BZ2 format.
this can lead you to very good results (I personally use it to save space)

[thaslacker]

@miseru99 I used the NTSC method on Suikoden III. Maybe it DID in fact compress the game, but when i checked the properties the size was the exact same as before i hit compress, and it would still not fit on my FAT32 hard drive. So either there wasn't a lot of empty-space or something else is wrong. The next part i don't understand about the ?"kills using backups normally"? Also thanks to Bositman and the creator of Lunch i use that now so ....

@Jesalvein - will BZ2 format work properly with PCSX2/Lunch? I'm assuming yes since you use it? Full functionality ect?

Thanks for the quick and detailed replies!

[miseru99]

When I said it kills using backups normally I ment you will not have iso selector as an option and have to load the iso through the plugin, but if you use PS2Lunch or the other launcher, that will be fine as it's stored in the ini's which those programs save per game. If a game compress awfully on ntsc, it'll not really compress better on any other. Compression doesn't create miracles, it just pack data which repeats itself, a slight and very basic explanation of what is compression - if you have 000000000 you could just write it as 10x(0 sign), which takes less space;P, but if you have 0123456789 you cannot really write it as 1*0, 1*1.. etc couse it would take more space at best, meaning it'll simply not compress. Some games already are using compressed files and they'll not compress at all or reduce by few mb's. Dunno what's the case with Suikoden through.

[Livy]

If you still have the discs, redump all your games. Some programs allow splitting the ISO file to .iso, .i01, .i02... etc, and you mount them using the .mds file. I don't know whether there is any program able to splitting existing .iso file or not.

[jesalvein]

By ntsc, you mean ntfs ?
And yes, i always use linuziso instead of the internal iso loader.
Never noticed any performnce difference, though...

[thaslacker]

That clears things up a lot. And a few MB would be fantastic for Suikoden III, since its 4.00GB and i need 3.99GB to fit, but that game is just trouble for now.

Thanks again!

[thaslacker]

LOL jesalvein yes i did mean NTFS. oh crazy computer abreviations....

@Livy - I like this solution actually, I use MKVmerge to split my blu rays into parts. Is there a program that you might suggest that does this or were you just making a suggestion?

Again thanks for the replies.

[miseru99]

>.< shucks I messed the name as well, thanks for correction;P.