Drive Compression

[Kingetter]

When I'm doing a disc cleanup I always notice the option of compressing the hard drive -


Ideally I want a larger drive but that has to wait. I've a load of stuff I want on the pc. Would compression be a good thing? or does it slow down retrieval? On xp pro.
Thanks for any informed advice.

[Tiger Jones]

Compressing could cause problems.

System performance would probably be poorer unless you have a fast system.

If something happens to your drive, it might be more difficult to retrieve data.

Might be OK for documents etc as long as you have back ups somewhere else.

Personally, I wouldn't consider it.

[Kingetter]

Compressing could cause problems.

System performance would probably be poorer unless you have a fast system.

If something happens to your drive, it might be more difficult to retrieve data.

Might be OK for documents etc as long as you have back ups somewhere else.

Personally, I wouldn't consider it.

Well many thanks for that - glad I've not taken that option, and I won't be doing so.

[blueivy]

Well many thanks for that - glad I've not taken that option, and I won't be doing so.

I'd agree with Tiger Jones that compression really isn't worthwhile unless you have files that can be compressed! If you store loads of ZIP's, MP3's, JPG's etc. then it is a little pointless as your PC is going to try and comrpess files that are already compressed themselves and waste a lot of CPU. If on th eother hand you store a lot of documents, text files, EXE's etc then it may be worthwhile. It will slow your PC down, regardless of what MS try and tell you. By how much depends on the wpeed of your disk and the CPU you have. You might not even notice. I'd say if you don't want to buy a new hard drive right now, give it a try. You can always turn it off again afterwards if it's not for you. With the prices on hard drives though, it may be better and safer just to buy another one. Prices for an 80Gb hard drive are around £35.00.

[Kingetter]

Many thanks for that. I suppose that photographs will maybe account for most of the space I use outwith programs, and while they can be stored on cd/dvd that isn't very handy when one needs some pic at short notice. Maybe an extra/separate hard drive just for photos could be an option?

[blueivy]

Depending which format your photos are in they may already be compressed so compressing the drive itself wouldn't save you much space. JPG's are quite a highly compressed format already. A separate hard drive for photos would be a good idea. If that's the option you want to go for, I'd probably got for an external USB one. They're easier to install (you just plug them in rather than opening your PC up) and iif taking them about with you is important (ie. to a friends house). You could also use it as a backup drive. One thing to consider with USB drives is that they, are your PC, are USB 2. If your PC is an older one or a cheaper one then it may only have USB 1. Get a USB 2 card (get a decent make too, like Belkin - they are more expensive byut I've found the drivers better - the cheaper ones I've used have flaky drivers). If none of that is important and you are happy playing inside your PC then, as I said, a new internal IDE hard drive is about £35.00.