Compressing Hard Drive/Files/Folders

[BluePeter]

Hello forum,
My query concerns above. My main C Drive(OS) has 158GB free out of 221GB so I probably should not be worrying and my PC runs like a Formula 1 car. My questions: (1) I believe it is unwise to Compress the Hard Drive..yes ? but is there
any advantage in compressing ALL files and folders ? I know they can be uncompressed if needed quite easily.
(2) Windows has installed well over a 100 updates in the past month or so even though my settings are set to letting me choose. These must be taking up Hard
Drive space. I know the important ones are required but would there be any advantage in removing Optional and Recommended updates to free space ?
My system is Windows Vista Home Premium (64bit) on a HP HDX 18 Laptop and I am very happy with everything in general. Might sound like heresy but I actually like Vista and find it works fine :D

 

[niemiro]

I too like Vista, see no reason to upgrade to 7, and use it as primary on all of my computers.

Now, your questions:

1) You would be very unwise to "Compress the File System" on your C:\ drive, as Vista takes this a little too literally, compressing everything, including the Boot Manager, and this will stop your computer booting, until you use your Windows DVD to uncompress the drive.

You have so much space that compressing stuff will only slow things down a lot and if you compress a crucial system file, then you have real issues, as it is also not the easiest thing to do - uncompress a file from the Recovery Console, you would have to import a new copy from a USB stick probably.

2) The updates all have important functions, and you will save so little space, probably less than 100mb. Leave them.

In conclusion, leave be!

Richard

 

[BluePeter]

Hi Richard,
Many thanks. Yes, I have taken your point about Compressing the Hard Drive and
shall refrain from this. Will also leave the Updates alone.
But what about individual files in Documents, Pictures, Music etc. ? Would it also be unwise to compress these even though, as I said in my original posting, I could remove the compression by just going into the files Properties if I so wanted ? :huh: A little confused here.

 

[keyboard]

1) You would be very unwise to "Compress the File System" on your C:\ drive, as Vista takes this a little too literally, compressing everything, including the Boot Manager, and this will stop your computer booting, until you use your Windows DVD to uncompress the drive.

I agree with niemiro.That will land you up with the error message-
Boot manager compressed
press ctrl+alt+del

why dont you just regularly defrag your drive.It will keep your Hdd organized.

 

[niemiro]

Hi Richard,
Many thanks. Yes, I have taken your point about Compressing the Hard Drive and
shall refrain from this. Will also leave the Updates alone.
But what about individual files in Documents, Pictures, Music etc. ? Would it also be unwise to compress these even though, as I said in my original posting, I could remove the compression by just going into the files Properties if I so wanted ? :huh: A little confused here.

This will not cause exact problems, but there are one or two things to know:

1) If these are just archived files, then there will be no issue. It will save some space.

2) If these are files you use regularly, then do not do this. It will slow down every time you try to open them, you will not be able to see their icons (far more important for a quick program find than most people realise) and any surrounding files will not open with it, so a picture slideshow will not work without extracting the whole folder in a time consuming process, and will require additional space for the expanded and compress at the same time, so you need a bigger free hard drive reserve space. Also, multi-file programs will not open properly without extraction.

All in all, this will really annoy you, unless it is only archives of stuff you won't need to open in the near future.

P.S. You could compress just a folder of archives.

 

[BluePeter]

Richard,
Many thanks and I think the matter is now resolved. I do not intend to compress any files in view of your comments. Look, if I really need to free up Hard Drive space, and that is debatable in view of my free space, I have a 250GB external Hard Drive that I could transfer material to. Problem solved. Many thanks for all your help.

Peter

 

[niemiro]

You are most welcome Peter. Do not be afraid to ask, we all need to learn, and I can tell you now, I too have asked many questions of my seniors!