Drive Compression in XP

[Guest Viki]

I have two internal hard drives

Drive C has my XP and installed programs.

Drive D holds all of my images, music, files, zipped programs, etc.

Some time ago I compressed drive D because it was filling up after converting all of my CD's to my hard drive (I admit that I did NO research before making that decision).

Now, after decompressing the drive, the files still appear 'blue' unless I physically alter/edit them.

Windows reports that neither the drive nor the folders are compressed but the individual files tell a different story...

What am I missing? I no longer want my MP3's and images to be compressed any more than what they natively would be.

I have 2GB ram and a fairly decent co-processer but would like to lighten the work load they experience through compressing/decompressing files.

If, in fact, my drive is already decompressed; why do the files still appear blue in Windows Explorer?

[Glenn]

Check the file properties to see if the files are still compressed.

 

If I recall correctly, with NTFS compression, when you decompress a folder, the subfolders and files within are not decompressed unless you select that option.

[Guest Viki]

Check the file properties to see if the files are still compressed.

 

If I recall correctly, with NTFS compression, when you decompress a folder, the subfolders and files within are not decompressed unless you select that option.

 

Is there a way to correct this 'after the fact'?

[DjLizard]

How to remove all compression attributes:

Start > Run > cmd.exe

 

Once in cmd.exe, type:

compact /u /s:X:\ /i /f /a /q > C:\compression.log

 

Where X: is the drive letter you wish to uncompress. It will not say anything or return you to a C:\ prompt until it is complete. You will also be able to look at C:\compression.log to see what was processed.

[Guest Viki]

How to remove all compression attributes:

Start > Run > cmd.exe

 

Once in cmd.exe, type:

compact /u /s:X:\ /i /f /a /q > C:\compression.log

 

Where X: is the drive letter you wish to uncompress. It will not say anything or return you to a C:\ prompt until it is complete. You will also be able to look at C:\compression.log to see what was processed.

 

What effect will this have on the rar and zip files stored on this drive?

Will they still be in their compressed formats?

[DjLizard]

Yes. This only affects NTFS' internal compression capability. This unsets the compression flag on the file.

[Guest Viki]

Yes. This only affects NTFS' internal compression capability. This unsets the compression flag on the file.

 

 

Thank you so much for your prompt and capable help.