Printable View
I just wanted to know what exactly this option does. Im using FAT32 on my main drive, and NTFS on my backup drive, and the backup drive is smaller, and has this option to compress it. What exactly does this do, and is it a good idea?
I just use that drive for mp3's and other non important things.
Thanx. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">
In 9x, compressing the drive uses that nasty DoubleSpace program that tends to cause more problems than anything else.
NT/2k do a MUCH better job. Instead of creating an entire virtual drive, it compresses each file individually. That way, if there is any disk corruption, only a single file is lost, not the entire drive. It also won't bother compressing the file if it can't (although it will still be marked as if it were compressed)
I usually just compress folders or files individually, since a lot of things are already compressed, or can only be compressed a little. MP3's are usually pretty well compressed, so you'll get little if any benefit. It works best for BMP and uncompressed graphics (JPEG's and GIF's are already compressed) and text documents. Sometimes works for MIDI and WAV files. May or may not compress program files well, it all depends on the author (MS stuff seems to compress really well).
It does just what it says: Compresses the drive.
However your data is less stable with it compressed. Oops, ignore what was here, cause I am a village idiot... Takes more CPU cycles, and reduces file access time, but gives you more space... It wont give you much more at all for MP3s though.
I wouldn't recommend it.
With prices of Hard drives so cheap, I would not compress a drive. It's easier to get a second hard drive.
Like Capt. Packrack said, compression works much better in 2K than it does in 95/98.
Like ShadowKing said, compression takes up more CPU cycles to decode the compressed info.
And like Lycia said, hard drives are so cheap these days, compression just isn't worth the hassle.
My advice - unless you can't afford another hard drive, and you're running low on space and absolutely MUST have a bit more to work with, avoid compression.
Ah, thanx again everyone!
This board rules!!!
And so do all the people who offer help! <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">