PrestoSoft Community

I am currently searching for a binary comparsion toll that can compare files\directories upto 5GB in size. I create alot of media for my company and WinDiff is too slow and cannot handel DVD size compares. I was wondering if ExamDiff can handel this?

No, this will be to much for ExamDiff (and ExamDiff Pro). You can compare large directories (only in the Pro version) but if a single file is 5GB, both versions will choke (exhaust memory).

Any idea on a file size limit for the Pro version?

Thank you for your responces.

Also how are the files and directories compaired. Is it just by file name and size or does it do a binary comparison? If this product does a binary compare then it is light-years faster then WinDiff the utility we are currently using. Thanks again.

file size limit: my guess: it depends on how much physical memory your machine has, how much virtual memory is configured, and how much memory is used up by other software while you run ExamDiff Pro.


directory comparison: depends on how you configure ExamDiff Pro - lots of options regarding directory comparison, see View - Options - Directory Comparison.

Regarding memory consumption: if you use full (binary) file comparison (see Options | Dir Comparison), and you have very large files in your directories, at some point the program may exhaust virtual memory on your machine. The solution is not to use full file comparison -- instead use timestamps, sizes, CRC (supported in later versions of ExamDiff Pro).

For file comparison, if you are trying have detailed comparison of binary files, the memory requirements are quite high. Text file require of less memory. Also, the actual amount of memory used by EDP depends not only on file sizes but also on how different the files are: each difference has to be stored, and the diff combobox also may grow large enough if the number of differences is huge. For the last issue there is a remedy: go to the View menu and uncheck "Diff Combo Box Bar". This, however, will not eliminate the need to store the differences.

Well hopfully there aren't any differences. What the software is used for is to compare CD Media after it has been cut to the disk set created in the build process to be sure that they are the same.

Give a try. You can download EDP for evaluation and see if it works for you.

Thanks for all the help we are currently testing the evaluation copy to see if it can handel our needs, I will let everyone know how it goes here so if this question comes up by someone else in the future you will have a reference for their answer.

CLovell wrote:Thanks for all the help we are currently testing the evaluation copy to see if it can handel our needs, I will let everyone know how it goes here so if this question comes up by someone else in the future you will have a reference for their answer.

Chris, you might find it better to use something like MD5 or PAR2 to check that massive files are either the same, or different (if different, I assume you don't care what the diffs are). I use QuickPAR (http://www.quickpar.org.uk/) for checking that backups are accurate. Just get QuickPAR to create a PAR2 file for the set of original file(s) you want to verify (I actually go for 0 recovery blocks, since I don't need the ability to fix corrupt files, only verify them - produces one small .par2 file), and then test this against the backups/copies - very quick and easy.

hth, Andy

I usually use 'sychronise dirs' of the Totalcommander to compare dirs. It will do a direct binary compare and also includes subdir's.
If you have direct access -as you normally have to the DVD - that is the easiest way.

Well to compare a dir over Internet or a slow network it is usefull to create a CRC-file (*.sfc) and transfer it to the other side -place it inside the target dir- doubleclick and let the Totalcommander validate/compare the files.

I'll second the MD5 comparison. I think I've used the FastSum utility.

I added your MD5 vote to the wish list at http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_suggestions