We all have those hard drives or partitions that seem to be small or are truly small (Waiting for a that’s what she said). A cool feature of the Windows NTFS File system/structure is file or folder compression. Few people use it but it does come in handy when you want to squeeze out more space on that small partition or drive.
However here is a list of reason and when not to use File Compression:
1. Never use NTFS File Compression on Windows Directories or Program Files
2. If you want to compress your documents make sure to compress them at the my documents/documents level not the USER level. Eg.(C:\Users or C:\Users\YourName) due to the fact you have registry info (User.DAT) in every user profile and will slow down or possibly corrupt your Operating System. Always compress inside the USER (YourName). Eg.(C:\Users\YourName\Documents (Vista/7) C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents (Win Xp\2003))
3. When you have a Drive larger than 320 gigs. Why? Really? Typically you have a large disk for storage of files. All Compression will do is slow (snails pace) you backups or storage techniques like copy and paste.
4. Installing any Server or Heavily serviced Applications like oh lets say MSSQL server. First it wont install on a compressed disk and if you end up getting it to it will make you administration as well as use a nightmare.
5. When doing any kind of backup like Norton Ghost or Drive Image or Cloning of any kind. This already takes forever. Compression only makes the hours last longer.
Truth is File Compression is a great tool and is a good idea on smaller drives less than 320 gigs. Use a larger disk for storage even make it ntfs if you want but do not compress it.
