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| Compress/Decompress Files |
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How To August 1999 • Vol.5 Issue 8 |
Compress/Decompress Files | ||
 If you are considering deleting some older and important files to make room on your hard drive, you may want to think again. With the DriveSpace feature in Windows 95 and Windows 98 (Win9x), you can compress files on your hard drive or even data on diskettes. By compressing these files, your storage source will have more space available for additional files. And the best part is you can decompress files when you need them again. All of the supplies required to compress and decompress files are under the System Tools feature in Win9x. Before you can compress files, you first need to compress the storage drive where the files are located. In your Start Menu, select Programs, Accessories, and System Tools. Next, click DriveSpace. It is here that you can compress and manage drives. Once a drive is compressed, you can still use it as you did before, though it will take longer to access files because they will need to be decompressed first. However, if you're using a Win98 machine and converted your hard drive to FAT32, you will be unable to compress files with DriveSpace 3.
 Getting Friendly With DriveSpace. When you select DriveSpace, all of the drives on your system will appear in a window. A great way to practice compressing and decompressing files is with a 3.5-inch diskette. Put the diskette into the drive and save a few large files, such as photos or images, on it. In the DriveSpace window, click your diskette drive, select Drive, and then choose Compress from the top menu. DriveSpace quickly scans the diskette and produces a graph showing how much free space is available on the diskette and the amount of free space available following the compression process. To proceed with the compression, click Start. Another window will appear giving you the option to back up the files on the diskette before compression. We highly recommend you conduct a backup in case there's a problem with the compression process. To advance with the backup, select Back Up Files, or click Compress Now to start the compression. Once the compression process starts, DriveSpace will scan the diskette for errors, prepare the compressed volume file, and compress the diskette. You can also go to System Tools and select Compression Agent. Compression Agent will give you the option to run DriveSpace if you haven't already done so. After you run the DriveSpace compression, you use Compression Agent to compress specified files. Once you open Compression Agent, you can opt to compress all the files on the disk by clicking Start, or specify which files you want compressed. In the Compression Agent window, select Settings. At this point, you can select to compress the files in UltraPack or HiPack format. HiPack is just standard compression, but UltraPack is a better form of compression, and the decompression process simply takes slightly longer. Microsoft recommends UltraPack be used with Pentium-based computers. In the Settings window, you can choose to compress files you haven't used in the past few months. Alternatively, you can UltraPack all files (not recommended for 486-based systems) or to HiPack the files. If you only want to compress a single file, or have files that you don't want compressed, click the Exceptions button at the bottom of the window. Exceptions To The Rule. The Exceptions feature lets you browse through the files on the disk and select different compression methods, or prevent items from being compressed. Start by clicking the Add button, and select if you want the files to be compressed in UltraPack or HiPack formats, or select No Compression. Next, press the Browse button to find the files on their compressed drive. Click the file and press Return, and it will appear in the Add Exceptions window. Click Add, and the file will show up in the main Exceptions window. Continue to select all the files you want compressed or eliminated from the compression process. When you've chosen the files to be altered, click OK in the Exceptions window, then click OK again under Compression Agent Settings, and press Start to begin the compression process. It never fails that once you've securely compressed a few files on a drive, you find yourself needing them returned to their original form. To decompress your files, you'll need to decompress the drive. Just jump back into DriveSpace, click the drive you want to decompress, and select Drive, then Uncompress from the top menu. Choose Start to begin the process, and you're on your way to accessing the files once again. When deleting files from your hard drive isn't an option, compressing them is a great alternative. Compressing your files slows down the access to the file, but keeping those files for future reference is worth the decompression time to many users.  by Buffy Cranford-Petelle |
