Email Large Files With Ease!

Have you ever tried to email a large file to a friend only to be rejected by your email provider? This is a common scenario as free email service providers like Gmail, Yahoomail, Hotmail and basically any other one that you can think of, impose a size limit on your file attachments. While you’ll have no problem sending a couple of high resolution photos, music files or Word documents around, what happens when you want to send that video of your family’s vacation to your other family members? Trust me, you’re not at a lost. Read on and I’ll show you how to get your files, no matter how big the file size, to your intended recipients.

While 10MB – 20MB of file restriction limit is often suffice for most users, there are those times when you just wish you had a little more freedom. In this post, I’ll show you a couple of ways on how you can break down your huge files to smaller chunks that you can then upload to free online storage services. Doing so has its advantages which I’ll go over in a bit.

First I want to talk a little about archiving formats. You’ve no doubt heard or seen a ZIP file before. At it’s core, the files in it are compressed. In order to open or save those files residing in the ZIP file, you have to decompress it. There are many archiving formats in use today with ZIP and RAR being more popular. There are many different compression methods as well but you don’t have to worry about it for now. While there are many paid versions of zipping and archiving software available, there are many free software that gets the job done as well. Zipping up files is a great way to send a bunch of files to someone. For example, if you have 20 pictures, rather then attaching each file individually, you can zip them all up and attach the Zip file instead. When the recipient downloads the zip file, he/she can then unzip them. A couple of freewares stand out, which I’ll list them here.

# 7-Zip

# IZArc

# PeaZip

# Splitting the files
Alright so now let’s really get into it and go over what to do with a large file that you want to send. A very simple logic will explain everything here. If a large file is to big to be sent as one piece, then why not break it up into smaller chunks and then send those chunks individually? It certainly is possible as I will explain here. Two awesome freeware will help you achieve this feat.

# HJSplit

# GSplit

Both software are really easy to use but if you want more options, you’ll definitely want to use GSplit instead. One major feature GSplit has over HJSplit is that GSplit doesn’t require the recipient of the files to actually install GSplit in order to merge back the files. With HJSplit, the recipient must use HJSplit in order to join the files together. Good news however is that HJSplit is a self executable so no installation is necessary, although they still have to head over to their site to download it, which some could consider rude of the sender. Let’s go over how each one works to break your large video file into more smaller pieces.

With HJSplit, you simply run the utility, select the Split option from the main menu interface, select an input file and output destination, specify how big each chunk of file should be in either Kilobyte or Megabytes and start the process. For example, if your video file is 100MB in size and you want to split it into 10MB chunks, than HJSplit will produce 10 files of 10MB each. Note that you cannot do anything with the individual files by themselves. You can’t for example, split the video into two pieces and expect to play the first half of the video in Windows Media Player! In order to make use of the files, you have to join them back together to recreate the original file. Make sure all the files are in the same directory. Then, fire up HJSplit and now select the Join option from the menu interface. Browse to the directory and it should instantly see the first file. HJSplit files have a .001, .002, .003, etc. file extension. If all the pieces are in place, then the files should join together without any problem and the original file will be re-created!

GSplit works in the same fashion but gives you a little bit more options to play with. For example, you can easily define how big each file should be (like in HJSplit) but GSplit also gives you the ability to specify how many pieces you want to create instead. So for example if you want to split the same 100MB video into 4 equal pieces, GSplit is smart enough to create 4 25MB files for you, including the self-uniting piece. GSplit created files with have a .GSD extension. Unlike HJSplit, you simply execute the self-uniting executable, specify a location and GSplit will automatically recreate the original file, all without having to actually download and install GSplit first. Very cool indeed!

# Uploading the pieces
Alright, so with the pieces created, we’ll now have to upload it to a third party storage site. There are tons of companies that offer these types of storage services but I’ll go over some of my favorites. Online storage sites are no different than say, your regular hard drive. But instead of having it stored locally where only you can access them, online storage and file delivery sites allow you to give anyone the same access. Basically, you upload the files and your recipient downloads the files back on their computer. The advantage of using these services is they allow you to upload much bigger files than what your email provider allows you to. As with most of these storage services, they work pretty much the same. You upload the files/pieces and when they are done, it will give you a link in which you then email to your recipients. Once they receive the links, they click on it and will be taken to the site with the ability to download that file you have uploaded. So if you split the video into 4 pieces, they will have 4 download links (or 5 if you include the GSplit uniting executable). However, some storage sites have rules such as deletion of the files after a certain period of inactivity and most importantly, download limits. Regular users are allowed to upload as much as they want to (there are still file restrictions here) but downloading is a different story. Some are more generous than others allowing you to download more before you have to wait a certain period of time before being allowed to download again. Most sites also give you the option of paying money to be a premium member in which you’re allowed more bandwidth speed and better management of your uploads.

# Megaupload
I love this site. Their download limit is very generous before forcing you to take a break. If your file is around a couple hundred Megabytes in size, Megaupload will allow you to download all of them with no problem at all. Their speed is also very fast.

# Mediafire
No doubt, one of my personal favorite. Anyone can use their service free of charge with up to 100MB upload per file. You can sign up if you want better management of your file uploads but it’s not required to start using the service. One of their best feature is unlimited downloads!

# Yousendit
They have pretty harsh restrictions for free users but if all you need is to get that large file across to just a couple of recipients, Yousendit is a good option.

# Rapidshare
One of my least favorites as it requires a lot of patience if you are not a premium member. Free members get to upload a maximum file size of 200MB and after every download, there is a 15 minute wait period before you can continue with the next file. Also, the download speed is mediocre as well.

# Emailing the links
Remember, after the success of uploading each individual file, you will be presented with the download link. Do not lose it! Copy it somewhere as you will need to email these links to your recipients. Once they receive the email, they can then download the files from the storage site you have chosen.

Conclusion
I’m sure you realized it by now but you don’t actually need to split up your files with HJSplit or GSplit. If you prefer, you can use Megaupload to upload the entire file whether it be 100MB, 500MB or even 1GB in size! You would then email the link as usual. Splitting the file to smaller chunks makes it easier for uploading at the convenience of the recipient. Remember, uploading is usually a lot slower than your downloading. The larger your file, the longer it will take for you to upload it. Breaking it to small chunks allow you to upload each individual smaller piece at your leisure. For example if your file is 500MB in size and somehow your Internet connection breaks off at the 400MB mark, you’re going to have to upload from scratch again! However if each file was maybe 50MB, then it’s not as bad, however, your recipient will have to download 10 files. If you use the zipping utilities mentioned at the beginning, you can zip your files altogether for easier uploading as well. For example, if you are in a band and want your friends to hear your new music, you can zip them all up into a Zip file and upload it to one of the storage sites I’ve mentioned earlier and then email the link to all of your friends.
Remember, with HJSplit, your recipient must download the HJSplit utility to join back the files. With GSplit, you can upload the self-uniting executable file as well and your recipient can then combine the files without needing to download or install any software (don’t forget to remind them about this!). Also, the links to your uploaded files will remain on the servers for a limited period of time before they are permanently deleted. But it should provide ample time for your recipient to download them in either case. Therefore, do not use these file uploading sites as your online storage backup! There are other services for that. I’ve talked a little about them in this article.