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Character Coding problems in Zipped Files

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infinisa
Hello All

I frequently synchronize my portable and desktop by zipping recent files on each PC, copying and then unzipping.

This works pretty well, except for one detail - the accented characters in file names sometimes get changed in the process. The strange thing is that a given letter, say ç, sometimes passes OK and sometimes gets changed!

Both PC's are running Windows XP SP2 in English.

Does anyone out there understand what's going on and/or have a solution to this annoying problem?

Thanks!
infinisa
Hello All

Come on guys, surely someone out there has a solution to this weird problem!

Here are some other facts about the case:
    - The problem is really unpredictable. For instance, I've unzipped the same file (zipped on a third PC) on my 2 PC's, with quite different results: the accented characters that get changed on one PC are different from those on the other PC, and even the character transformations are different!
    - Once I created a compressed folder using Windows (it must be the only PC in the known Universe without WinZip!), and it didn't allow me to place a file inside it whose name contained an accented character. It looks like Microsoft knows there's a problem here!

I'm sure the whole thing must be to do with character coding, but I don't know anything about this, and in any case can't understand how my two PC's, which I installed myself, behave so differently!
leontius
Are you always using the same software to zip and unzip? Maybe one has bad support for international characters in filenames, and zipping/unzipping with it can cause the problem. And I think you have to install something (from the install CD) to enable international character support in Windows XP.

Quote:
- Once I created a compressed folder using Windows (it must be the only PC in the known Universe without WinZip!), and it didn't allow me to place a file inside it whose name contained an accented character.


There are so many archiving software for Windows in the world, not just WinZip (and you are counting out people not using Windows...). I currently don't have winzip or its installer in my PC, but I have 7-Zip ( http://7-zip.org ) which is pretty nice. Using another zipper program might be helpful for you.[/quote]
infinisa
Hello leontius

Quote:
Are you always using the same software to zip and unzip? Maybe one has bad support for international characters in filenames, and zipping/unzipping with it can cause the problem. And I think you have to install something (from the install CD) to enable international character support in Windows XP.


For normal zipping/unzipping I use WinZip or WinRAR.

For synchronising PC's, I use an excellent program (but a very old version of it!) called TurboZIP from FileStream because it has a great scripting facility which allows me to backup changes to given folders (or specific files etc.) that have changed since a given date. Obviously this is useful for synchronising PC's, as I just exchange backups of new/changed files since the last synch.

I'm sure there must be loads of good archiving programs out there and it's probably time I tried something up-to-date, preferably free. Do you have any suggestions? My only requirements are that it should create standard zip files (so can can open it with any old software - even Windows XP) and allow me to do the same kind of programmed conditional zip as TurboZIP3 (so I can use it to synch my PC's).

But getting back to the garbled character in file name issue - as the problem occurs with both TurboZIP and WinZip, I suspect it's a Windows configuration issue, rather than a problem with my archiving software. The question is, how and where to fix it?
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