Any Dangers with XP Compression?

[kdeans]

I am very close to running out of disk space on an IBM XP laptop (36 Gb, NTFS). I travel for work and use it for business. Because I am gone for extended periods, I decided to rip my entire CD collection to MP3s. Can anyone comment on any problems I might encounter if I compress this volume? Speed of access, corruption, security, etc. I would think that error checking and a defrag is in order before starting or is that part of the process? Is there any danger during the actual compression process?

 

[linney]

307987 - HOW TO: Use File Compression in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307987&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Relocating Hard Drive Capacity and File Compression
thread779-939540

Hard Disk still full after deleting large files
thread779-1136701

 

[Rick998]

Just so you're aware, you need at least 10% free hard disk space to carry out defrags.

 

[xwb]

XP compression is similar to zipping but is a lot slower. Unzipping a 48Mb file using XP takes about 30 minutes. With WinZip, it only takes 2 minutes.

You may not gain a lot compressing music files. Best get another disk or use one of those portable drives.

 

[phillid2]

You may want to invest in a small, USB hard disk to store the music. Can be in the suitcase or laptop bag.

Another option that I use is a streaming music service. I use Yahoo for like $65 a year.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Another hard drive is fairly inexpensive. Yeah you'd have to reinstall everything but you'd gain a lot of space. A 100 gig hard drive is only about $75 for a 4200rpm to around $125ish for a 7200rpm and that certainly is as cheap (or expensive I guess) as buying an external drive but you wont have to carry an external drive. Which could get dropped, stolen etc etc (believe me I used to travel a lot the last thing you need at the airport is another piece of electronic equipment) check

http://www.pricewatch.com

for some decent prices.

I am not even sure XP will work on a compressed drive. I am pretty sure it won't install on a compressed drive unless you sacrifice a goat and a virgin on a blue moon night that fell on a Saturday. I guess if you have the most top of the line laptop it would mostly work but compression is more for storage and not really to be used for an OS.

Even if you get an OS to work on a compressed drive (and if you do you need to buy a lottery ticket) you WILL have problems with other stuff and I can tell you for a fact there isn't one software maker that will support their stuff on a compressed drive.

Just so you know, compressed files tend to get bigger when you compress them again. So your JPG's and MP3's (both compressed files) will actually get slightly bigger in size.

Cheers
Rob

 

[kdeans]

I decided to compress only the music directory. It was 18 Gb before I did and exactly the same after. If I copy a file (they are basically all MP3s) to an uncompressed directory, it is the same size. There was absolutely no space saving by compressing. I have copied spreadsheets, documents, and graphics back and forth and they are the same size whether they reside in a compressed or uncompressed directory (they are listed in blue and the folder properties show them as compressed when in the compressed folder). Anyway, I am going to explore the possibility of a larger drive. I have ghost XP, so if I can find one at a reasonable price, I will have to figure how to slave one in order to clone. Does anyone know of a special laptop ribbon cable for cloning IBM laptops?

 

[gbaughma]

Compressing a music directory won't gain you very much (if they are MP3 files), since MP3 is already a compressed format.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly exchanged his dilithium crystals for new Folger's Crystals." -- My Sister
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[jkl0]

If your laptop has a dvd player, you could put your mp3's on several dvd data disk and just keep what you want to listen to at the time on your hard drive which will free up that space.

 

[linney]

This thread talks about laptop adapters for copying hard drives.

ReImage laptop hard drive
thread779-1261355

 

[Ploper001]

FYI, I bought an external HDD since I was also running out of space on my laptop - I bought a 500GB SATA 3Gbps Drive for £120, and spent a further £20 on an external USB Caddy.

Works like a dream, and may be just the thing you need