Hi all once again,
Thank you all for the helping me in the past, and today. I have an old Dell Dimension 4600i Desktop, Windows XP SP3, Pentium 4 (2.66 GHz), 2.5 GB RAM, HDD C (80 GB with 29 GB free space), HDD F (80 GB free space).
My question involves the general usage of the Windows HDD "compression" option. When you right click on either of the hard disk drives, and click on properties, there is an available check box for "compress drive to save space".
Some questions if I may, please:
1). How much space can I restore/regain by compressing my C drive? I only have 29 GB left of the original 80 GB. Is it significant, like 40% or so?
2). On this C drive, I employ a program called "Free Hide Folder" which hides some of my private material, until I open that program, enter in the correct password, and the files re-appear in Windows Explorer. Otherwise these files are hidden.
Question: If I in fact go ahead and compress this drive, is there a chance I could lose these hidden files. In other words, do I need to open them first using my password, before compressing the drive? Or is that unnecessary.
3). I recently installed a second HDD, F, and it has nothing on it yet. Should I check this box to save space now, before I even store anything on it, or should I wait til after I have some data on there, and then allow compression.
4). Are there any inherent dangers of compressing a hard drive? Does compression make it any more vulnerable to data loss, failures, or crashing?
I would appreciate any and all advice.
Thanks all.
Bruce
BSB1953
