I've heard this term tossed around in forums so often I thought i'd ask. What is disk compression? And what does it do on a Win9.x and a NT system? Does it compress all the files on a HDD so it can hold more data?
Disk compression should be avoided. It was popular when a 500MB drive cost hundreds of dollars. With today's huge cheap drives using compression is dumb, a small disk error can cause the loss of all your compressed data.
#2. "RE: Disk Compression" In response to Shelly (Reply # 1) Sat Mar-15-03 03:17 AM
Perhaps i should clarify. I never said i wanted to use it. I was just wandering what exactly it is because i'm preparing for my A+ certification and wanted to be prepared in case it was on the test. (i.e. I wanted to know if my initial hunch was correct or incorrect).
#3. "RE: Disk Compression" In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 2) Sat Mar-15-03 06:21 AM
>>>Does it compress all the files on a HDD so it can hold more data?<<
Yes.
Chewy, from my old A+ course notes re: 'Drivespace' in Windows 9X:
A compressed drive is not a drive at all; it's a file.
What Drivespace does to compress a drive:
* Assigns a different drive letter to the hard drive, such as H. * Compresses entire contents of the hard drive onto a single file on drive H * Sets up the drive so that Windows 9X and other applications view this compressed file as drive C. * Configures Windows 9X so that each time it boots, the Drivespace driver will load and manage the compressed drive.
It gets a bit confusing when you start to try and understand where data is actually going on a compressed drive and what the data compression engine does to the appearence of your disk drives.
One more thing to remember for the exam: Drivespace doesn't work with FAT 32 under Windows 98.
Like Shelly said, the whole process is extinct these days.
Just reading this thread- i have Win xp and use the file compression. NTSB or whatever it is called- i do not need them for anything- just do email, etc here. So, I read it is slower than not compressing them- I read in help , etc they recommend it. I want to keep my Hd uncluttered as I do not need all those old files. Is there a way I can go in and UNDO it so when i do disk clean- it does not compress but deletes them all.I looked and could not seem to find where I had set it up to begin with. Thanks