Uncompressing files

[Elbatrop1]

Hey guys,

I got a two-part question:
a) Do programs slow down if they are using files that are compressed?
b) If so, can I uncompress large amounts of files?

I ran disk cleanup (WinXP) about a week ago, and as part of that I compressed any old files. Now it seems that if I go to play any games that had files compressed, it runs slower.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Jorsoft]

I think the reason that they're running slowly compressed is because Windows has to copy and decompress every individual file that is used while the program is running, which would definately affect performance.

 

[Elbatrop1]

ok, so that explains that, thanks.

Do you or does anyone know how to uncompress large amounts of files?

 

[rakesh_1024]

Usin what did u compress the files?
If U used the ZIP utility then it can b done by simply extracting them.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Hey guys,

I got a two-part question:
a) Do programs slow down if they are using files that are compressed?

Your OS itself does not use any 'zipped' or compressed files of that sort when the OS is actually running.

It sounds like to me that you actually might have used the disk compression utility which is qutie different from compressing a folder or file. System files that are compressed in this manner, cannot be expanded with a unzip utility.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Usin what did u compress the files?

I didn't zip them up. I used the compression utility like what Lone Wolf said.

Your OS itself does not use any 'zipped' or compressed files of that sort when the OS is actually running.

So does that mean that the decline in performance in games and stuff could be related to my hard drive getting filled up?

I also attached what the settings on that file are like.

Thanks again

 

[Lone Wolf]

Ahhh... now i see what you've done Albatrop1. Ok, NTFS compression is different than using a zip utility to compress files. NTFS supports native encryption and compression on folders as well as entire drives. Your system will run slower if you've compressed a drive or a system folder (which is the case here). I don't know why that is, but perhaps it has something to do with how the OS reads the compressed drive or folder. I really can't give you a technical explanation.

If you can, I'd recommend getting a spare HDD, (even it's used) and hook it up as a slave, that way, you can move your personal data off that HDD and free up some space.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Ok....I think that would work out pretty good, but the thing is that I still have a good amount of HD space left (95GB free). I know that with that much free space, I shouldn't have done the compression, but I did....for some reason.......that I'm not really sure of myself.
Anyways, I was hoping there was some way to undo the compression so that I can get the performance back to where it was.

Any ideas?

I know how to uncompress the files individually, but that would take days to uncompress every file

PS: don't mind the lack of response from me for the next week or so, I'm taking off for holidays. But, thanks in advance for any advice

 

[rakesh_1024]

One simple step
see to it that all the files are selected, go to properties and unckeck the option.

 

[Elbatrop1]

One simple step
see to it that all the files are selected, go to properties and unckeck the option.

Yeah I knew about doing this. The crazy thing was that if I were to go to properties for a folder that had a mixture of compressed and uncompressed files, the checkbox was empty like the files were all uncompressed.

But......it got me thinking.........what I did was I checked the empty checkbox so that I would compress all the files in the folder. Then, when it started compressing everything in that folder, I clicked cancel. When I clicked cancel, the folder's font still turned blue (like it was compressed), but the files inside were still mixed (uncompressed/compressed). So then WinXP thought that everything was compressed from the folder's point of view, and all I did then was uncheck the checkbox, and it took like 20 min for some of the big folders (like BF:1942) to uncompress.

Thanks for all your guys' help. I checked the performance of the now uncompressed games and its good again