I’ve never been a big fan of splitting and joining files because the entire process is normally tedious. A lot of times it requires the receiver of the split files to have a specialized application installed in order to join them back into one single file. It’s an almost impossible chore for anyone that isn’t tech savvy.
One of our readers, "s", tipped us off on a free Windows application called GSplit. As expected, it splits and joins files together, but the receiver doesn’t have to worry about installing an application to unite the files. GSplit automatically includes a standalone combiner when the files are split, and it is extremely lightweight (about 70KB). For example, I split a 1.32MB file into 15-pieces, and the resulting files totaled 1.40MB which included the built-in combiner.
Note: GSplit does require installation in order to split files.
Here are some of the features GSplit has to offer:
- Generates a Self-Uniting program to restore your split files professionally. GSplit is then not required in order to restore the split file.
- Store file properties and restore them: file’s date, attributes are not lost contrary to batch files.
- Detect file corruption using size, offset, CRC32. When a piece is corrupted, you are notified about it, so you just need to get a new copy of that piece, not the whole set.
- Split very large files (bigger than 4 GB).
- Customize piece files according to your needs (size, filenames, title, author…), leave additional space on disks, create pieces without headers (useful for text-based files like large server log files).
- Split multiple files back-to-back in one time, include batch (automating) and command line options.
- Show you elapsed and estimated times during the splitting & uniting operations. You can also pause/resume the splitting operation.
- Store settings into profiles and let you use these settings for different files, remember MRU files and folders, automatically try to find out the best splitting settings…
- Integrate into Windows Explorer to let you split your files directly from the context menu.
Here is a screenshot of the standalone file joiner:
GSplit Homepage
Kudos to "s" for the tip!
I use HJSplit. No install required. The .exe is only 174kb. It’s created by freebyte(dot)com.
Here’s a download link: [urltea.com] (it says it’s 168kb, but when I download it it’s 174kb on my pc).
Looks like there is a newer version than that on their homepage that includes support for Vista. It weighs in at over 300KB though.
When you split files does this package the joiner needed with it?
Yeah. You need the program to split and join files. If for example I split a video file, the chunks get renamed videofile.flv.001, videofile.flv.002, etc. for as many pieces as there are. The person joining the files would need to have HJ Split on his or her PC (the user can download it on freebyte.com). If all the chunks are in the same folder, the user just needs to select the .001 file and it would start the join process.
Here are some screens I made using that zunePhone vid from the forum:
[i18.tinypic.com]
[i11.tinypic.com]
[i13.tinypic.com]
[i19.tinypic.com]
[i13.tinypic.com]
It’s a very easy process. About the new version- I use XP so I don’t really need it but I guess it’s almost twice as big because they probably made the splitting/joining faster. Other than that, the only difference I found is that when exiting in ver 2.2, there’s a confirm dialog, but it doesn’t appear in ver 2.3. But I doubt it’s going to make a difference that the file is 174kb, or 300kb, or 70kb. If the person really wants to, they can remove HJ Split from his or her PC when done with the joining process.
For some reason split utilities were always available for free, ever since the floppy disk *shudder*/ pre-broadband era when one needed them way more. I prefer to rely on something like Winzip or Winrar when I need to split files coz mail services are for the most part unfriendly towards exe attachments. This does seem like the messiah of split utilities though.
Why not just use zip/rar/etc. and create self extracting .exe’s of the size you want?
I’ve used HJSplit quite a bit, but only because I’ve downloaded things that were already split.
Very nice utility. But split archives are a better option.