Help with extracting/ combining files from FilesMonster

[jason.ihn]

Hi there, fairly new to Apple MAC computers.

I need some help–I have been sent a wedding video via FilesMonster.com. I have downloaded the files, there are 3 files and they end with wmv.zip, wmv.z01 and wmv.z02.

Could someone please tell me how to extract and combine these files on an Apple MAC? There is a default software I can use that comes with a MacBook, or there some free software out there that I can download to do it?

I have looked everywhere and can't find anything online.

THANK YOU, any help would be much appreciated as I am dying to see my cousin's wedding video!

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

What options do you see when you Ctrl-click and choose "Open With"?

Basically, the wmv.zip is a container format and the files you want are inside. We just need to marry it with the correct decompressor.

(Some folk get uppity when they see the word MAC as it has a meaning all on it's own ... It doesn't bother me but I've seen some get hot and bothered )

 

[jason.ihn]

Well I get:
The Unarchiver (default)
Archive Utility
Stuffit Expander
Stuffit Expander (14.0.0)

But when I try any of those:
The Unarchiver - I get "The contents of the file can not be extracted with this program"
Archive Utility - I get another file ending with "zip.cpgz"
Stuffit Expander - I get "An error occured attempting to expand... wmv.zip"
Stuffit Expander (14.0.0) - I get "Unable to determine the file format"

Nothing I have installed will actually extract all 3 files and combine then in to 1. Do you know if there is supposed to a specific software I am supposed to download and install to extract and combine these types of files?

Thanks!!!

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Have you tried double-clicking on one of them? Are they password protected?

Here is some software that you need in situations like this:

How to Play WMV on Mac OS X(Snow Leopard included)?

Here is something to consider regarding .zip files:

Open ZIP files on your Mac

1. Double-click the zip file to unzip. Depending on your settings, downloaded files may automatically extract to a new folder. The original zip archive will be saved; check for a folder with the same name as your zip file.

2. Check the extracted folder to make sure the contents are not zipped. Sometimes documents and subfolders will be compressed, and these need to be unzipped.

Zipeg

I just downloaded and tested Zipeg and it's pretty good. You can preview what's inside a range of container files and extract one single file or the lot ... it might be good for your .zip file. Just launch Zipeg and click "Open" which is in the upper left of the window ... navigate to the wmv.zip file, select it then click the open button. The wmv.zip file should now appear in the Zipeg window and you can browse the zips contents and when you want to take your files just select them and click on the "Extract" button ... but before this make sure you know where the destination of the file is otherwise you will have to search your HD. I usually select my Desktop.

Another member here has a similar app called FileJuicer which does pretty much the same thing ... I'm not sure if it's shareware or what ...

Anyhow let me know if this works for you

 

[freakazoid]

The files at filesmonster.com are multi-part zip files (january 2011).

To extract them you need to concatenate them and unzip them.

For example if you have the files:

wedding.z01, wedding.z02 and wedding.zip

you can type on the command line:

cat wedding.z*> wedding.full.zip
unzip wedding.full.zip

This means wedding.z01, wedding.z02 and wedding.zip are appended one after another into one file. This file can be unzipped afterwards.

Since the zip files at filesmonster do not use compression you can also remove the header from the zip file:

# skip the first 101 byte which belong to the zip header
dd skip=1 ibs=101 obs=1000000 if=wedding.z01 of=wedding_part1.wmv
# append part2 if it was downloaded with the same IP address.
cat wedding.z02 >> wedding_part1.wmv

Note that the zip-header is 101 byte in this example. Since the header contains the filename, it can have a different length for other files.

To read more about the ZIP file format read:
http://www.pkware.com/documents/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT

 

[moi808]

I too can't find a way to make the filesmonster files combine and unzip. I downloaded the last file which was a zip, unzipped it using Stuffit Expander, but cannot complete the whole package. How do I combine all 5 items?

 

[freakazoid]

I too can't find a way to make the filesmonster files combine and unzip. I downloaded the last file which was a zip, unzipped it using Stuffit Expander, but cannot complete the whole package. How do I combine all 5 items?

Did you read my post ? You need to join the files - in your case 5 files. After joining *.z01, *.z02, ..., *.zip you can extract the new big file with Stuffit Expander.

If you did not download all files from one IP address, then you will have problems joining them, since they vary in the size of the files (some bytes).

 

[Teo Vincent]

I've spent hours on this on my G4 and a Macbook of a friend's. After trying renaming things all kinds of names, I just left the .zip and .z01 as they downloaded and used stuffit expander on the .zip, the Finder didn't give the right size at first, but whala!
The worse thing is: A "free" app Alzip is supposed to be how you do it. Free, but the Apple Ap store forces a credit card! Except.. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2709836 That should get you there. So I haven't used Alzip yet, I'm trying to install a os 10.4.11 version good luck to me! Anyway there are my answers. Thanks for the helps!!!!