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| Running . . . DriveSpace |
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System Tools February 2001 • Vol.7 Issue 2 Page(s) 100 in print issue |
Running . . . DriveSpace | ||
 The disk compression program Drive-Space is a relic of an era when hard drives were small and expensive. To save space, DriveSpace takes all the files on a drive and compresses them into one large file. This file is similar to a Zip file but uses a proprietary format. DriveSpace then tricks Windows into treating this compressed file as a new and larger drive. On average, this compression ends up doubling the capacity of the drive. DriveSpace only works with the older FAT16 file format. The electronic gymnastics DriveSpace goes through to compress and decompress files as Windows uses them takes memory and process power that could be better used for other purposes. In addition, having all the files compressed in one large file means that damage to that one file can render all the files unreadable. Now that hard drives are large and cheap, you are better off adding a second hard drive or upgrading your existing drive to a larger one than you are using DriveSpace. Microsoft realizes this and has begun phasing out DriveSpace. The version in Windows Me can support compressed drives on removable drives that you may have created with prior versions of Windows. However, it cannot create any new compressed drives and it does not support compression on your hard disk at all. Despite this backward compatibility for removable drives, the writing is "on the wall" for DriveSpace. If you currently have a hard drive that you have compressed with DriveSpace, you must move the files onto a new, larger hard drive before upgrading to WinMe. If you are using DriveSpace on removable media, such as a 3.5-inch diskette or Zip disk, after upgrading to WinMe you should switch to Compressed Folders before Microsoft completely removes support for DriveSpace. Since a Compressed Folder is really nothing more than a Zip file, transferring your data from DriveSpace to a Compressed Folder not only gives you great compression, it also makes it easy to share the data with others and lets you use all the wonderful tools that are available to work with Zip files. Given all this, there is no practical reason not to switch from DriveSpace to Compressed Folders. By default, DriveSpace does not start automatically, even if you have a compressed removable disk in place. To start it, click on the Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, System tools, and then DriveSpace. To use a compressed removable drive, it must first be "mounted." To do this, in DriveSpace click the drive to be mounted and then select Mount from the Advanced menu. (See the Troubleshooting Tip below for more information.) Once mounted, WinMe can access the compressed removable drive as though it were a larger capacity disk. Files are copied or moved to and from the compressed drive just like any other drive. You can use drag-and-drop, Explorer, or even DOS. The amount of compression you will see varies a great deal. Many data files compress to one third or less of their original size. Word processing and spreadsheet files are very good candidates for compression. BMP image files show remarkable compression. However, ZIP, MP3, GIF, and JPEG files do not compress at all since these file formats have compression built in. In general, the compression you will see with DriveSpace is comparable to "zipping" the files; however, unlike programs that use the ZIP format, DriveSpace does not allow a large file to be spread out over several diskettes. Unless you have two removable drives, transferring your DriveSpace data to a Compressed Folder will be a two-step process. First, mount the DriveSpace disk and then create a temporary Compressed Folder on your hard drive. Open the DriveSpace disk and drag its contents to the Compressed Folder. Now, unmount the DriveSpace disk and replace it with a fresh disk. Click on the Compressed Folder and drag it to the fresh disk. If the new disk is blank, there should not be a problem with the Compressed Folder fitting on it. Once you have verified that the data was successfully transferred, you can delete the DriveSpace compression from the removable disk and, if desired, delete the temporary Compressed Folder from the hard disk. To delete the DriveSpace compression, click on the Advanced menu and select Delete. You can also use Explorer to format the disk. Repeat this process for each of your DriveSpace disks. Once you have transferred all of your data from your DriveSpace disks to Compressed Folders, you will be using the most modern method of compressing your data.  by Ronny Richardson
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