Compress Hard drive option not available

  • Thread starter Thread starter JT
  • Start date Start date
J

JT

I have 3 physical disk drives. On 2 of the 3 the option to compress files
to save space is available. Right clicking on a directory displays the
compress directory menu. One drive simply doesn't have any of those
options listed. They aren't even greyed out, just not there. What's up
with that one drive?
-JT
 
Nope, NTFS like all the others. Another funny thing, it's partitioned and
it's the sytem boot drive. The partition can be compressed too! Also,
when viewing the drives through the computer management tool, the options
to mark partition as active and format are both greyed out.
 
Nope, NTFS like all the others. Another funny thing, it's partitioned and
it's the sytem boot drive. The partition can be compressed too! Also,
when viewing the drives through the computer management tool, the options
to mark partition as active and format are both greyed out.
Click to expand...

Is the drive showing as basic or dynamic in disk management?
 
Nope, NTFS like all the others. Another funny thing, it's
Is the drive showing as basic or dynamic in disk management?
Click to expand...

It's basic. In fact, all my drives are basic.
 
That's too bad. If it had been dynamic, it would have explained a few of
the symptoms that you're seeing.
Click to expand...

I have to loose the data if I want to change it to dynamic don't I?
 
I have to loose the data if I want to change it to dynamic don't I?
Click to expand...

Yes, but you want it as a basic drive if you want those missing
options. Dynamic drives are treated as extensions to other drives and
can be mounted as a folder. Since they're treated more like a folder,
one would expect the normal commands to be missing. I was hoping that
the drive was dynamic and that you could mount it to get your data
back. Are you able to "scan for drives" or "mount the drive" in any of
the menus from Disk Management?

You certainly have hit a puzzling situation. Some thoughts...

If you have the resources, you could download something like Knoppix.
An operating system that you can run from CD. It might succeed where
XP is failing to see the data on the drive so that you can move it to
another location. Then perform some diagnostics on the drive and/or
try repartitioning and reformatting.

Was this drive ever used on a system with GoBack or Linux' LILO boot
manager? Both GoBack and LILO write their own little MBR that gives XP
conniption fits. If the drive can be dropped back into the old system
and have those things removed, it miraculously becomes available in XP
once again.

Another thing to consider: Download diagnostic tools for the drive and
test it. Choose the tests that do not disturb the data currently on
the drive. Wouldn't hurt to rule out the possibility that the drive
has developed a problem at an inopportune moment.


Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows XP
 
Yes, but you want it as a basic drive if you want those missing
options. Dynamic drives are treated as extensions to other drives and
can be mounted as a folder. Since they're treated more like a folder,
one would expect the normal commands to be missing. I was hoping that
the drive was dynamic and that you could mount it to get your data
back. Are you able to "scan for drives" or "mount the drive" in any of
the menus from Disk Management?
Click to expand...

No, those options are not available under the context menus. All the
drives show up as healthy, but not Active. The drives I can compress
say healthy (active) but the ones I can't just say healthy or healthy
(system)
You certainly have hit a puzzling situation. Some thoughts...

If you have the resources, you could download something like Knoppix.
An operating system that you can run from CD. It might succeed where
XP is failing to see the data on the drive so that you can move it to
another location. Then perform some diagnostics on the drive and/or
try repartitioning and reformatting.
Click to expand...

I have partition magic and it can see all the drives just fine. They
all look identical from the partition magic shell.
Was this drive ever used on a system with GoBack or Linux' LILO boot
manager? Both GoBack and LILO write their own little MBR that gives XP
conniption fits. If the drive can be dropped back into the old system
and have those things removed, it miraculously becomes available in XP
once again.
Click to expand...

None of the drives were used like that. I used to have them on a mirror
RAID though my Abit motherboard, but I upgraded to an Asus and took them
off the mirror, wiped the drives and reinstalled my OEM XP Pro disk.
They booted up with this weird missing option, but I'm sure it's not a
hardware issue since one drive which is partitioned has the ability to
compress on it's second partition but not the root.
Another thing to consider: Download diagnostic tools for the drive and
test it. Choose the tests that do not disturb the data currently on
the drive. Wouldn't hurt to rule out the possibility that the drive
has developed a problem at an inopportune moment.
Click to expand...

They are Maxtor drives, so I guess I'll check out their site and
diagnose them, but I think it's a missing registry key more than a
physical anomoly due to that one drive with the partition. Still, it's
not a big deal, just weird.
 
They are Maxtor drives, so I guess I'll check out their site and
diagnose them, but I think it's a missing registry key more than a
physical anomoly due to that one drive with the partition. Still, it's
not a big deal, just weird.
Click to expand...

It is weird. Wish I had some answers for you but I don't. Sorry. Do
the drives check out okay with chkdsk?


Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows XP
 
Did you say it is a system partition? You can't compress the system
partition. It would completely bog your system to nothing so it is
not even an option.

I just want to make sure you do not have your OS or a pagefile there.
I don't think windows will let you compress them.

--------------------

Now I have a similar but slightly different issue. I wrote an
application for archival that compresses data as it copies it
elsewhere. On 2000 it works fine. On 2003, it works on my c:\ drive
but not on my E:\ drive which is dynamic. But you can manually
compress it on E:\ or use the compact command just fine.

Damn these setbacks.
 
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