What Is File & Folder Compression?
Data files can require a lot of hard disk space. However, file compression utilities remove empty space from those files and perform other space-saving operations to help reduce the amount of storage capacity your files require. Compressing files and folders can help you increase the number of files you can store on your hard disk.
Other People Are Reading
-
NTFS File Compression
-
Windows operating systems, beginning with Windows XP, allow you to compress files that are stored on a volume that has been formatted with the NTFS file system. When NTFS compression is used, the files are automatically decompressed when they are opened and compressed when they are saved.
NTFS Folder Compression
-
When you compress a folder stored on an NTFS volume, all files in the volume are compressed. Also, any new files you add to the folder will be compressed.
-
NTFS Compression Limitations
-
Files and folders retain their compression only while they are located on an NTFS volume. Performance can also be reduced because of the work the computer needs to perform to decompress each file when it is open and compress it when it is saved. Finally, you cannot compress files that are encrypted using the Encrypting File System (EFS). Encrypted files are those that have been protected so only users with the necessary security certificate can open them.
Zipped Files
-
Windows (XP and later) also includes the ability to compress files using the WinZip compression algorithm. Zipped files are compressed and added to a file with the .zip extension. The compressed files are sometimes called "archived files." The files within the .zip file retain their compression even when they are copied to other volumes, sent through email, and uploaded to other computers. You must manually extract archived files before you can use them.
Zipped File Limitations
-
Files archived with WinZip technology can only be accessed on Windows (XP or later) computers or on computers that have the WinZip utility. Also, some files can be compressed more than others. Word document (.doc) files have a lot of empty space and compress well. Other files, such as JPEG (.jpg) picture files or executable (.exe) files, do not contain empty space, so compressing them does not provide any disk space savings.
Other Compression Utilities
-
Other compression utilities are available and each compresses files using its own set of rules. For example, the WinRAR program creates.rar files. Files compressed using other utilities can only be decompressed on a computer that has a compatible decompression utility.
-
References
- Photo Credit bare oem hard drive image by davidcrehner from Fotolia.com
