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GSplit by GDG Software |
GSplit is a really great file splitter with lots of features, a nice interface, is user friendly and best of all, IT'S FREE!!!. |
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Download HERE! |
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GSplit by GDG Software Have you ever found a file that you wanted to share with a friend, only to find out that it's too big to fit on a floppy, your friend doesn't have a zip drive and it's WAY too small just to burn on a cd? Well, here's a nifty utility that will take that big file and chop it up into pieces small enough to place them on floppies. Then, you can pass them along to your friends. Then, they copy them on the hard drive and run the self uniting .exe file. Voila, the file you wanted to share with your friend has been passed without a fuss. "GSplit" is a file splitting, freeware utility with tons of great features that allow you to customize your splits, including the ability to make an .exe file so that the other person doesn't need the "GSplit" program to unite the file back together again. It's a great program and here's the skinny on it. Downloading........ No problem. It's one self extracting file, that's it. Just make sure you know where to find it! :) The site offers other downloads too. Most are shareware though. Installation.......... It's the usual self extracting .exe file that you download, find and click on. Just follow the prompts. Nothing to it really. Help Files.......... "GSplit" comes with some excellent help files which help explain all of the features that you'll come to use on this program. In a way, the actually program has help files built in as they basically take you through the file splitting process step by step using the interface tabs which make up the program.
Interface........... I found this particular design rather attractive with a very detailed color scheme. The program itself is made up of different tabs which will take the user through the different steps necessary to split files. Here's a pic of the first display as the program opens:
The tabs take you to the different steps necessary such as selecting the file to split, where the file will be going, Pieces settings, split options, self-uniting options and Advanced options. If you follow them along, they really make it easy to split that mp3, even if you've never tried one before! Here's a pic of the fourth tab giving the user the Pieces Settings:
Features........... To be honest, I had never tried a file splitting utility before this one however, I had a file that I wanted to share with a co-worker and the only way to give it to him was on seven disks. I just couldn't get it to him any other way. I figured I would try this one and, if I liked it, I would do a full review on it. Well, after trying this program first hand for both my co-worker and myself, I really found this program to be a feature rich, self contained utility. First, GSplit allows you to set a limit for each piece of the file and you can customize your name via clickable variables on the forth tab. On the fifth tab, you are given the option of reserving a specific amount of space per disk as well as giving the file a title and name. The first tab on the second row (first if you click on it) is where the real meat and potatoes start. Here, there are a group of four areas to set different options such as Custom Prompt Messages (this is great if you're doing one file for someone specific!!!), where the file goes, file options, and Misc Options for things such as doing a check on the file when executed. There is a tab for advanced options, and one more for the Operation Summery. The Test........... Lots to see and lots to do, but does it work?? Sure it does, and really well too. First off, I wanted to try something really BIG, so I went to the selection tab and did a search. Ahh..... there in the Duke3d directory was the Duke Nukem 3d .GRP file, a whopping 45 megs! I didn't intend to put these on disk so I just picked a working directory on my hard drive to put the pieces in. Then, I selected the setting for size and I set them at 1.4 megs figuring that I would be transferring them to a floppy. Of course, you can set this to something smaller for say, posting binaries to newsgroups if you want. The program told me that I would need 32 disks. Since I'm putting them back on the hard drive, I didn't worry if I had enough disks. Next, I picked my name for the split program and of course, I put "Buzzy" down as the author. Going to the self uniting options, I made a couple of custom messages to myself for the button boxes, picked a place for the file to go (the user can select another area if desired), then I picked my File (restore file date and attributes) and Misc (make checksum 32 check) options. The Advanced Options allowed me to pick a file name, to make it self-executable, and to delete it after splitting. (NOTE: I found out later that when you name the self-executable, you should give it a .exe extension or else Windows will not recognize it and ask you for a program to run it with!) When everything was set the way I wanted it, I opened the last tab for the summery and clicked the "split" button. There she goes!!!!! The summery was being written on the fly and my file manager was keeping up with all of the 1.4 Meg files being developed. Lastly, the .exe is made, named and placed in the directory. All total, it took 23 seconds to complete a 32 disk split of a 42 meg file to the hard drive. I figured that was quite fast considering the size of the file. The summery gave me a detailed description of each file made and how it came out. Now it would be just a matter of copying the files to floppies or posting them via a newsgroup (with a smaller size of course). Now that I've gotten the file split, I wanted to see if connecting them back together was just as easy. I found the .exe file that GSplit made along with the other files. One click on the file and open went the first dialog box with my choice of words (I could see a lot of humorous possibilities with this!). It was really neat to see it too!! I clicked the button and in 22 seconds, all files were united into the one .GRP file and my other dialog box pops up with my closing words! Even though I didn't pick them, there are options to set which will delete the pieces of files once the original file was reassembled. That test was pretty massive, but confined to the hard drive, so I hacked up the file for my friend and copied the seven files to seven disks. He told me two days later that the reassembly of the complete file was successful. "Worked like a charm" were his words. If you don't want to create a self connecting .exe file to the split, you can send the GUnite program which is about 180k in size. Personally, I don't know why anyone would do that, but if it's needed, they include this program to reunite the split files into one file. WARNING: Remember, if you do not create the .exe file, you MUST send them this program file separately or else the individuals you send the split files to will not be able to do anything with them. Here's a pic of GUnite:
Problems......... None, and the fact that GSplit has been Version 1.0 for quite a while now without updates seems to point to the authors doing it right the first time. It's nice to see for a change. Update: GSplit now has version 2!! Check out their download site! Closing......... For a file splitter, GSplit seems to work very well. I love the look of the interface and there are many features which, from what I've read on other file splitter web sites, aren't available elsewhere. If you run into the need to split a file, give GSplit a spin. I'm sure you'll love it. Enjoy Buzzy J
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