Hard Drive Depression? Try Windows XP File Compression
Contributed by Jay Schroyer
Throughout the history of personal computers, their capabilities have expanded exponentially. By taking the massive data processing skills of the computer and applying them towards specialized applications, computers have become major players in everything from music and art production to controlling city traffic lights.
As these specialized applications evolve, users are finding that they can accumulate more data than they have room to store and so storage space or hard drives on computers are ever growing in capacity to meet this rising demand.
But as users collect albums of digital pictures, thousands of music and video files, and install complex, feature-rich programs to edit and manipulate these files, they’re finding that even these enlarged hard drives aren’t always enough to handle the volumes of data being saved. This is where file compression can really help out a full hard drive.
What It Is
Though it may seem like it, file compression is not magic, nor is it that hard to learn how Windows does it. File compression is a process that allows you to stuff 100 pounds of stuff into a 10-pound capacity box.
The most common example of utilizing file compression is users that send larger files via e-mail. Sharing photos is another popular use. If you have 40 mb worth of high quality photos, these can be compressed down into a smaller file so that others can receive them easier via e-mail as they take up less allotted space in the receiver’s mailbox.
Another simple example is your grocery list. You know what you mean when you write “nystk” to remind yourself to pick up New York strip steaks for the barbeque this weekend, but it saves you time and space by abbreviating. This is very similar to what Windows XP can do with your full hard drive.
By searching through your data, Windows can find duplicated material and “collapse” these items together. For example, let’s say you have your novel that you’ve been working on for years on your hard drive and it’s become quite a massive word processing file. Windows will search this file and find the name “Jonathan Smith” appears 120 times. It will then assign that name with a number, say the number “1.” So now, instead of taking up 14 characters, that name will only take up one, the number “1,” each time that it appears in that document. On and on the computer will search this file, and others like it, to find repetition of words and phrases and replace them with a code of numbers. Windows then creates a file that it will later use to decipher the code whenever these files are accessed.
By doing this to the entire computer, Windows can save large tracts of space by eliminating what are essentially redundant pieces of information and replacing them with data that takes up a relatively small space of the hard drive. It’s important to note that although this process does save space, it will not necessarily make the computer perform any faster because you’ve now added the step of decoding the compressed data. Each time it is accessed, Windows will decompress the file so that you can view and alter it and will then recompress the file when you have saved your changes and exited.
How to use it
Learning to use the built-in Windows compression tool is one of the computer basics like setting your desktop background or screensaver. Anyone can do it, but make sure you have some time to let the computer do its thing as sifting through a full hard drive of material to compress it could take the processor some time.
You can begin file compression by clicking on your computer’s “Start” button and choosing the “My Computer” option. A window will appear that contains all of the disk drives on your computer. Select the drive that you want to compress and right-click on the icon to access the file menu.
Select the “Properties” option at the bottom and another window will appear showing the properties of the disk drive you selected. Access the “General” tab at the top (it should open to this tab by default), and find the check box towards the bottom that reads “Compress volume to save disk space.” After you click “OK,” another window will prompt you to confirm the changes that you are about to make to that drive. Once you’ve confirmed, Windows will then begin the compression process. And that’s all there is to compressing your NTFS (New Technology File System) drive in Windows XP.
But let’s say you don’t want to compress the whole drive, but rather a specific folder that contains an enormous amount of information. It’s as easy as the above steps. The only difference is that you will select an individual file folder instead of an entire disk drive. If you get stuck or have some confusion on the above process, you could always look into a Windows tutorial that will walk you through the file compression process and perhaps answer any questions that you may come up with.
So if you’re finding yourself running out of room on your hard drive, let the Windows file compression utility reorganize and more efficiently store the contents of your drives.
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About the Author:
Jay Schroyer has worked in the client and customer service end of business for over five years in retail, advertising, and printing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English writing and communication.
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