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I have about 500 RAR archive files and 300 ZIP files that I want to burn to a DVD and give to someone else. I would like these 800 different archives to be in the same file format, so either 800 ZIP files or 800 RAR files. (Or better: have both!)

The simple solution would be to extract every archive and then compress them again in one of the new formats. Is there a better solution? Perhaps some tool that can convert the archives directly without having to extract to temporary files first?

(Side question: does it also support other archive formats?)

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    Just so you know. The way most lossless data compression works the data must be decompressed before it can be recompressed in a different format. This may happen behind the scenes using only RAM or using temporary files written to disk but it is happening.
    – Kenneth Cochran
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 12:58

2 Answers 2

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There are probably several ways to doing this, but I'm presuming you have WinRar installed on your computer so:

  • Start Winrar

  • Tools > Convert Archive (or Alt + Q)

  • Add the folder where the files you want to convert are (this will parse through and add all archives you have specified in the checkbox area)

  • Click Compression

  • Choose Archive Format: RAR or ZIP

  • OK

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    how did ytou get Alt + Q to look like that?
    – Petey B
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 17:13
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    Wrap it up with <kbd>key</kbd>
    – pavsaund
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 19:13
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When installing WinRar there's an option to customize the Explorer context menu. If you look around in there, you'll see an option for "Convert archive". Using this you could convert the ZIPs to RARs or vice versa with just a select a bunch, right click, convert.

Per pavsaund's comment, you can also enable this after WinRar is installed by going to:
Options -> Settings -> Integration -> Context Menu Items... -> Check "Convert archive..."

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  • +1 as is less steps than pavsaund solution :)
    – Wayne
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 11:29
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    Options > Settings > Integration > Context Menu Items... > Check "Convert archive.."
    – pavsaund
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 11:31
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    +1 better than my solution, just have to enable the feature
    – pavsaund
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 11:32

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