CD-Zip

A usual CD-R can carry 650MB. There are also CD-Rs around that are 700MB->800MB. However, the capacity of the disk is limited to the size of the disk.

In order to increase the amount of useful data I can fit onto any one CD, I tend to zip my files before burning. However, when running complete system backups or large file backups, the spare room needed for the zip file is extremely large. For example; when backing up a system that contains user documents, which usually zip to about 30% of their original size, I can fit about 2.3GB onto a single CD. This means, however, that I need to have a spare 700MB on my system to temporarily store this zip file.

I propose that CD burning software be developed that can be used in conjunction with any CD burner, which compresses the files before burning them. The support for this would, however need to be built into the OS so that the data can then be read off the cd at a later time without using special reader software.

By compressing even simple repetitions or repeated patterns would help conserve the space used. A version which would be more advanced could also be devised which finds repeated files (like precompiled headers in user's accounts, or when you have many students downloading the same lecture slides) and merely links them all in the backup to one copy of the file.