Andy said:
I would like to compress the $NT directories that are under the $hf_mig$ directory.
And put them on another drive using Winzip.
Can I do that and have the ability to later restore those directories
below C:\Windows ? (In case I need to uninstall some hotfix, etc.)
Thanks.
In a previous post, you quoted an AskDaveTaylor article that
said you could remove them.
The compression part of your question then, is a separate issue.
Once you've moved the data off C:, you can do what you want with it.
*******
Data is not infinitely compressible. Some things you download
off the Internet, are already compressed. You could be in
for a disappointment, if you spend time trying to compress
something, only to find there is nothing left to save by
doing so.
My compression tool of choice would be the compressor in 7ZIP.
You would do an "add to archive" and just toss all the folders
in question into the same archive. If you use "store" mode with
one of the compression options, that just puts all the files into
a ZIP without compression. That's pretty fast. If you specify a
level of "Ultra" compression, that might take a few minutes.
Since the $NT are around 500MB, this isn't a big deal.
Where I have problems with compression, is compressing
an entire 500GB hard drive image (from a sector by sector
capture). If you do that with 7ZIP Ultra compression,
that could take you all week. But a little 500MB compression
job, it doesn't really matter what level of compression
you select, it's likely to be finished during your
current session.
7ZIP integrates into the context menu, so you can run it
by right-clicking stuff. And that's a very nice feature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-zip
My favorite compressor for large jobs is gzip. A parallel
version is available as "pigz.exe", which uses more than one
core. The gzip compressor in 7ZIP runs on a single core.
The Windows port of PIGZ (pigz.exe) is a little buggy,
and consequently I have to flip to Linux to get a good
archive from it (so the contents list properly). The
reason for using this particular compressor, is space-time
tradeoff. It runs a lot faster than 7ZIP Ultra style
compression, and might take a day instead of a week.
Something like "pigz -3" gives a good space-time
tradeoff, and gives you most of the easily recoverable
space, in the least time.
There is a compressor that claims to run faster,
but apparently it has pathological conditions it
doesn't handle well (not everything compresses
the way you'd expect). So if I have to compress 500GB,
I'd do that with gzip. Whereas for 500MB, use whatever
you want in 7ZIP, and it'll likely be finished today.
OK, so what would be my procedure ?
1) Download and install 7ZIP. It's ready to go right away,
and there'll be a new entry in the right-click context menu.
2) Create a new folder, such as D:\Space-Olympics.
3) Copy all the $NT folders into Space-Olympics.
4) Right-click the Space-Olympics folder, find "7-ZIP"
in the context menu then drop down to the next menu
level where you find "Add To Archive". You'll have an
opportunity to name the output.
5) Select your compression method, and give it a whirl.
7ZIP should not delete the source folders, but by copying
the $NT folders over to your Space-Olympics folder, nothing
bad is going to happen to them in any case.
If the compression meets your needs, now you can toss
the Space-Olympics folder in the trash, and empty
the wastebasket.
HTH,
Paul
