Open Multi Write Lha Archive on Windows

I've created a couple of archives directly on my Amiga using lha_68040 ( a fairly recent version).

One archive was System and the other Work so pretty big. I'm basically backing up an A1200 I inherited.

There was a couple of crashes and files not read, so I had to restart. Lha skipped over the done files and started adding the new ones.

However, when using 7-zip on Windows, it only sees the files archived on the first round and complains of a CRC error.

I downloaded WinRAR and it's the same story with that.

Now I could redo the archives on the Amiga side, but they took about 10 hours to do with restarts etc. so I'd rather not!

So is there a Lha unarchiver on the PC side that can handle archives that have been written to more than once?

The archives themselves do seem okay, I ran them through lha with the -t flag on the Amiga side and all the files came up okay.

Thanks,

[Daedalus]

There is also a command-line version of Lha for Windows/DOS - it might be worth trying that.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by zzap64

However, when using 7-zip on Windows, it only sees the files archived on the first round and complains of a CRC error.

I've seen Lha creating archives with CRC errors if you add a lot of files at once, even if it runs without a crash. Test the archives with the Amiga version of Lha. There may be a few single files with CRC errors. You can remove and re-add them which should take less time than to create the entire archive again (with the risk of getting CRC errors again).

You should consider making archives with fewer files. For example one per directory.

I've also had success with creating an uncompressed archive and then compress the entire archive at once into another archive.

@Daedalus I'll have a look for that, unless you have a link handy?

@thomas I did test on the Amiga with -t and they were okay.

If I have to do it again I think I will do it uncompressed for speed. I probably should do a few main folders at a time but I was a bit too lazy to research the arguments.

[thomas]

If the archive is ok with Lha, you could use Lha in WinUAE to restore it into a HDF at high speed and recreate it in one go without crash at the same high speed.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

There is also a command-line version of Lha for Windows/DOS - it might be worth trying that.

I tried that (Google pointed me to a message by you actually on this board: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63388) and got a bad table error and then it crashed.

So back to the Amiga and try again with no compression... You'd think with a 060 in the machine it wouldn't take so long, the problem is nearly the files that are compressed already, lha takes it time trying to compress them and then giving up and continuing with other files.

[Daedalus]

Well, by Thomas actually But I have the PC version floating around so long I've no idea where I got it. That's unfortunate. Another thing that you might check (and is easy to check) is the Max Transfer setting for the partitions you're using. Large files can be corrupted if that's set inappropriately for the interface. For the A1200's internal IDE connection, it should be 0x1FE00.

Other than that, Thomas' suggestion of uncompressed is the way to go, especially if the files are already compressed using some other compression (MP3, JPEG etc.). Lha isn't going to be able to do anything much with them so I wouldn't bother trying.

[ma693541]

Open/Extract LZH/LHA File with Freeware on Windows/Mac/Linux

Easy 7-Zip opens/extracts LZH/LHA file easily on Windows. The Easy 7-Zip was developed based on 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a famous open source file archiver. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. The open source freeware keeps all features of 7-Zip and adds a few useful features that makes the software more user-friendly.
Easy 7-Zip works on Windows 8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible).

I have not tested it myself, but give it a try, zzap64. If it works on Windows 8.1, it should works on Windows 10.

Thanks, 7-zip was my first attempt but it didn't like the multi write archives either.

Anyway, I removed the CF HD to my A1200 where it's nice and stable and just redid the two archives with no compression. It didn't take too long and now I have 2 lha archives that can open on any of the PC lha programs.

I then compressed the lhas into a zip on the PC, which I feel a bit dirty about! ;-) It was rather quick though. :-D