A spanned zip file is a zip file that is split into multiple files, each located on a different floppy disk or other removable media. Spanned zip files are usually created directly to floppy disks or other removable media, in order to fill up each disk as much as possible or as specified. Spanned zip files allow a large zip file to be stored onto floppy disks or other removable media that normally would not fit.

The difference between a spanned zip file and a multi-part zip file is that a spanned zip file is created directly onto the target disks (each disk contains one file, always with the same filename) while a multi-part zip file is created into any target filesystem folder, with each part of the zip file having a different ( numbered) filename extension. A multi-part zip file can be copied to disks at a later time, but is not guaranteed to fit onto the disks nor to take up the optimal amount of space available on each disk.