ZipArchive headache

I have held off on posting this pending an implementation of a script that uses a formal synchronous POST strategy, AND IT WORKED. So there are now two "gotcha's" 1: ZipArchive won't create an empty zip file, but will return a positive result 2: Apparently, after the exercise below: A zip file will not be created using an async request. And will give the persistent result as below. That is the common link in all the different dev server installations. ----The message as I originally composed and saved as a draft--------- I have been struggling with this and am continuously running up against this wall; 1: I originally was get ZipArchive::CREATE to work on iMac (Mac OSX w/Apache) as

    local dev server.

2: This machine began giving me the ominous click of death (hard drive about to bail out) sounds.

    So I switched to another Mac with Yosemite, (Latest OSX version) thinking that a newer version of
    php would be installed.
    I got the same story. The code below is also wrapped in a class def. That is when I started getting
    the error code, and that is why I tried to isolated it to get it to work again.

3: I also go a new Mac Mini and switch to that thinking maybe a newer version of php:

    Same story.

4: Meanwhile back at the iMac, the hard drive was not about to cr*p out. The clicking

    sounds must have been coming from stereo system playing percussion instruments

5: So now I am back at the iMac where I was able to get the code to work originally. And now I am getting the same @#$!! story. The calls to header, print, and exit are in response to async get queries. $_constER is an array I culled from the various error codes according to the documentation. else if($_GET['newArchAlt'])

     {
      //header('Content-Type: text/plain');
      //print $_GET['newArchAlt'];
      //exit;
      require_once("php/zpArchConst.php");
      //$_constER;
      $_alt = new ZipArchive();
      $_ret = $_alt->open(getcwd().'/'.$_GET['newArchAlt'], ZipArchive::CREATE);
      header('Content-Type: text/plain');
      print $_ret.': '.$_constER[$_ret].":  ".$_GET['newArchAlt']; // result appears below
      exit;

The result as printed in the initiating page: 1: ZipArchive::ER_MULTIDISK|Multi-disk zip archives not supported: test-2.zip So, essentially the same code on three different machines, when one initially was working. I don't know if anyone has a suggestion. I have posted about this issue several weeks ago and the suggestion that I try deleting the file before trying to create it. But I still get the same story, and it doesn't exist before trying to create it.