How to compress a 3GB file down to 10MB?

I was hoping someone could clear something up for me after seeing this link:

Stop posting links to pirated software.

Benjamin King2
So, looking at the link provided, there’s supposedly 3.5 gigabytes of data packed into a tiny 11-megabyte RAR file... honestly, it sounded too good to be true, but I went ahead and downloaded it just to see, and it actually works. Does anyone here actually know the trick behind doing this? And please, I am begging you, don't suggest that KGB compressor program—I already wasted my time trying to use it to pack my own files, and it didn't shrink them by even a single byte. It stayed exactly the same size. Any real advice would be appreciated.

🙏

Interesting... highly interesting.

Give PowerISO, UltraISO, or anything similar a shot—they all come with built-in options for ISO compression.

Benjamin King2 said:Maybe try using UltraISO or similar tools; I guess most of them include an option for ISO compression.

The interesting part here is that the .rar file is actually the one doing the heavy lifting with compression, not the .iso itself.🤷

Basically, WinRAR is going to strip out all that useless bloat from the ISO file—anything that’s just "empty space" won't make it into the archive. This is a pretty extreme case, though—maybe they’re using some specialized algorithm, like Huffman or something similar.

Charles Moore45 said:Please don't suggest using that old KGB software to me; I already tried using it to compress my files, and honestly, there was absolutely no difference in size compared to the original...

That KGB tool actually does its job quite well; you likely just had the settings configured incorrectly...
Keep in mind that if you push the compression to the absolute maximum, the process can easily drag on for several hours...

Not every file can be packed like that.
This one probably has a massive amount of repetitive long strings, so you might see some decent compression.
It’s not about the software doing the compressing—it’s about the nature of the file itself.
Where's the file?

Just grab a Windows 7 installation DVD, burn an ISO from it, and then squeeze the whole thing down to a tiny 11 MB. 🙂

placidranger said:you can't just pack any random file like that.
this one probably has a massive amount of repeating data sequences, which is why it compresses so well.
it’s really less about the compression software itself and more about the nature of the file you're working with.
where's the file?

There aren't any repeats in here at all... I grabbed the download, and it comes as a .rar file. Once you unpack that, you get a 3.6 GB .iso, and when you dig into that .iso, you just end up with a standard folder containing Windows 7 that's also around 3.6 GB.

Thanks.

Are you kidding me? Is that even possible? 3GB over a 10Mb connection? No freaking way.

Look, just Google "Windows 7/11 MB" and download it... it's clearly doable.

Benjamin King2 said:I mean, just Google "Windows 7/11 MB" and download it... clearly doable.

Has anyone actually tried installing those Windows versions yet?

Peter Martin8 said:Has anyone actually tried installing this version of macOS?

The consensus on the forums is that it works—no major issues reported.
Anyone here interested in running some tests? 😁