Why does unzipping files take so long?

[Siegfried Heintze]

I downloaded a 150 MB zip file from http://eclipse.org with the firefox
browser on a new notebook (I'm hoping there is no adware on it yet!). I
opened up a windows explorer window on the zip file and right clicked to
extract the files. I got a dialog box and it said it would require 2 hours
to extract all the files!

After waiting for 20 minutes I aborted and used the cygwin.com free unzip
program which unziped everything in a couple of minutes. Why is the vista
program for zip files so slow? Is there anything we can do do speed it up?
Thanks,
Siegfried

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Vista has lots of problems. Wait until SP1 has been finalized and it might
get better. I had problems copying data files from one drive to a USB
drive. Took 4 times as long on Vista than XP.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

I downloaded a 150 MB zip file from http://eclipse.org with the firefox

browser on a new notebook (I'm hoping there is no adware on it yet!). I
opened up a windows explorer window on the zip file and right clicked to
extract the files. I got a dialog box and it said it would require 2 hours
to extract all the files!

I can't repro this problem.

I downloaded eclipse-SDK-3.3-win32.zip, 140MB, containing 1,831 items.

In Explorer I dragged and dropped the contents from a zip file to an
unzipped folder, which took 2 minutes 11 seconds.

This is on 64 bit Vista, with a 2.4GHx Core 2 Duo processor and 3Gb of RAM,
and a 10,000 rpm Western Digital Raptor SATA drive; Windows Performance
Rating 5.2.

There are many, many variables which could affect performance - CPU, other
background processes, anti-virus, filter drivers, disk IO, available memory,
etc etc.

You may be seeing a genuine problem; and I'm not suggesting Windows built-in
zip is super-efficient - it probably isn't the fastest. But, the problem
you're seeing is not universal. In many situations, the zip performance in
Vista seems to be quite acceptable.

You'd probably need to run some tests on your machine to see where the
bottleneck was with that particular operation - use Perfom and add counters
for CPU processor time, memory pages/sec, Physical disk queue length, etc.

Regards,

 

[Guest]

Did anyone ever find a solution to this problem? I have a new machine with
2GB RAM, a very fast processor, but even with antivirus turned off and
nothing else running, extracting , say, a 10MB zip file takes over 40
minutes! The transfer rate is 4k/s, so it would actually be quicker to
download the files from a dial-up modem then extract them from a zip file on
my machine!

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Did anyone ever find a solution to this problem? I have a new machine with
2GB RAM, a very fast processor, but even with antivirus turned off and
nothing else running, extracting , say, a 10MB zip file takes over 40
minutes! The transfer rate is 4k/s, so it would actually be quicker to
download the files from a dial-up modem then extract them from a zip file
on
my machine!

Although you are undoubtedly seeing a problem, it is not the universal
experience for all Vista users. There is some specific or local condition
which is causing the slow performance you are seeing.

I have plenty of gripes about Vista; but speed unzipping files, is not one
of them - I can unzip quite large zip files, nice and quick on my main
machine. As I said:

Start by playing around with Perfom, and see if you can delineate the main
parameters of the slow performance.

Other folks might have better ideas, hope this helps a bit.

 

[HeyBub]

Did anyone ever find a solution to this problem? I have a new machine
with 2GB RAM, a very fast processor, but even with antivirus turned
off and nothing else running, extracting , say, a 10MB zip file takes
over 40 minutes! The transfer rate is 4k/s, so it would actually be
quicker to download the files from a dial-up modem then extract them
from a zip file on my machine!

Turn off your virus checker. Does that make a difference?

 

[Gareth]

I had the same problem, so I ditched Microsoft in favor of WinRAR. No
problems since.

 

[Guest]

i have to say it took Vista nearly an hour to extract the data files off my
old machine

i wonder whether it has anything to do with Vista indexing the extracted
files one-by-one (which might not be the case if Winrar extracts them)

 

[MichaelDouglasKrause]

Although you are undoubtedly seeing a problem, it is not the universal
experience for all Vista users. There is some specific or local condition
which is causing the slow performance you are seeing.

I have plenty of gripes about Vista; but speed unzipping files, is not one
of them - I can unzip quite largezipfiles, nice and quick on my main
machine. As I said:


Start by playing around with Perfom, and see if you can delineate the main
parameters of the slow performance.

Other folks might have better ideas, hope this helps a bit.

I'll chime in and say it universally frustrates me as a Vista user as
well. Vista's explorer shell has horrible problems with at least two
things: zip files, and files that are "in use" by another process even
though the other process is no longer running. I've gotten used to
the fact that whenever I try to open up or extract files from a zip
file it's a good time to go for a bathroom break. I've also gotten
used to the fact that I can't delete files when I want to, and if I
wait until after said bathroom break, I'll more than likely be able to
delete what I wanted then.

 

[Robert Martin]

It is a know issue that has to due with permissions.

If using something like WINZIP before you unzip the file
right click on it and select unblock. I did this yesterday and a file
that took almost a min to extract was done instantly.

HTH

Robert

 

[Guest]

I bought a new laptop this week, and unzipping files is appallingly slow.

Like the original poster, eclipse was a nightmare. The spring framework
(with approx 9500 files) had an original estimate in DAYS!!! Although this
then came down to a 'paltry' few hours.

There are posts all over the internet on this problem. It's not just an
isolated case. I'm raging that this OS is clearly not ready.

I also found that if trying to unzip a file in the same directory as one
where unzipping is already occuring causes Explorer to throw a wobbly and
restart.

I'm so annoyed with this. I have to unzip stuff on my old XP machines, then
copy across to the Vista one.

Vista Schmista. Most of my developer friends are now buying MACs. I really
wish I'd done the same. Never thought I'd say such a thing.

malc

 

[Dave]

hmmm. I don't even notice files unzipping.
Just click on them and the folder opens.

 

[Picsoetje]

Hi,

I've had the same problem since I have a Vista-machine (zipfolders was
working perfectly under XP).

The good news is that it looks like it will be solved with Vista-SP1.
I had the opportunity to test the latest beta (RC) version and I could
notice that unzipping with "ZipFolders" was lightning fast.

Let's hope together that it will be kept in the final SP1 release )