Is it ever unconpressed on the disk or will I always take a performace hit

[AAaron123]

Microsoft OneCare says it compresses "old files".
I assume it really means files that haven't been used for a long time.
Suppose I have WordPerfect on my machine an haven't used it in two years and
it gets compressed.

Next year I get a new job and use WordPerfect daily.
Is it ever uncompressed on the disk or will I always take a performance hit.

It occurs to me that cpu's are getting faster faster than disk are getting
faster, so I wonder if reading a smaller file and uncompressing it produces
a performance hit?

Thanks

 

[Twayne]

Microsoft OneCare says it compresses "old files".
I assume it really means files that haven't been used for a long time.
Suppose I have WordPerfect on my machine an haven't used it in two
years and it gets compressed.

Next year I get a new job and use WordPerfect daily.
Is it ever uncompressed on the disk or will I always take a
performance hit.
It occurs to me that cpu's are getting faster faster than disk are
getting faster, so I wonder if reading a smaller file and
uncompressing it produces a performance hit?

Thanks

No worry. It will uncompress when you start using it. ALL the files in
the folder may not uncompress if there are some features you don't use,
but it won't be a problem. Those will uncompress if/when you first use
them.
You could also uncompress them manually if you wanted to by going to
the files, selecting them, then going to Properties, Advanced and remove
the check from the compression setting.
They won't get in your way.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[AAaron123]

Great. A couple of years ago I was led to believe once compressed they would
stay that way unless they were manually uncompressed.

If I manually compress a file it will stay that way even if I use it. Right?

If that is true it would need two flags.

One for compress forever and one for compress until used.


Thanks a lot

 

[VanguardLH]

Microsoft OneCare says it compresses "old files".
I assume it really means files that haven't been used for a long time.
Suppose I have WordPerfect on my machine an haven't used it in two years and
it gets compressed.

Next year I get a new job and use WordPerfect daily.
Is it ever uncompressed on the disk or will I always take a performance hit.

It occurs to me that cpu's are getting faster faster than disk are getting
faster, so I wonder if reading a smaller file and uncompressing it produces
a performance hit?

Thanks

There is always a performance hit when both compressing the file (when
saving or modifying it) and when decompressing it (when reading or
copying the file). This feature in OneCare sounds like the same one
available in the Disk Cleanup Wizard. I never select it. Compression
always incurs a latency in accessing those files.

If you are getting tight on disk space, don't look at compression to be
your savior. Start planning on getting more or bigger disks.

 

[AAaron123]

There is always a performance hit when both compressing the file (when
saving or modifying it) and when decompressing it (when reading or
copying the file). This feature in OneCare sounds like the same one
available in the Disk Cleanup Wizard. I never select it. Compression
always incurs a latency in accessing those files.

If you are getting tight on disk space, don't look at compression to be
your savior. Start planning on getting more or bigger disks.

OneCare does not give the option as does Disk Cleanup.

Do you agree that the file will become uncompressed on the disk once it is
used?

Thanks

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote ...

OneCare does not give the option as does Disk Cleanup.

I don't bother with OneCare. You said 'Microsoft OneCare says it
compresses "old files".' Well, it looks like you said that OneCare does
support compression of old files (those that haven't touched in awhile).

Do you agree that the file will become uncompressed on the disk once it is
used?

Nope. Once compress it remains compressed until YOU choose to no longer
compress it. Touching the file does not auto-magically decompress and
keep decompressed the file. Think of it like a .zip file.

Once compressed, and when you no longer want it to remain compressed,
you will have to revisit the folder or file to remove the compression
property.

 

[AAaron123]

THANKS

I don't bother with OneCare. You said 'Microsoft OneCare says it
compresses "old files".' Well, it looks like you said that OneCare does
support compression of old files (those that haven't touched in awhile).


Nope. Once compress it remains compressed until YOU choose to no longer
compress it. Touching the file does not auto-magically decompress and
keep decompressed the file. Think of it like a .zip file.

Once compressed, and when you no longer want it to remain compressed,
you will have to revisit the folder or file to remove the compression
property.

 

[HeyBub]

There is always a performance hit when both compressing the file (when
saving or modifying it) and when decompressing it (when reading or
copying the file). This feature in OneCare sounds like the same one
available in the Disk Cleanup Wizard. I never select it. Compression
always incurs a latency in accessing those files.

Not always a performance hit. In some instances it is faster for the machine
to read a compressed file and expand it in RAM than to read the
uncompressed file.

Imagine a largish file made up entirely of spaces that's also heavily
fragmented. When compressed this compressed file occupies ONE disk sector.
When that sector is read, the file can be uncompressed in RAM faster than
the disk head can move to the next sector on an uncompressed file.

Of course the process is never as simple as this. Smart drive logic,
buffers, what is being done with the records when they are retrieved, and
the phase of the moon all figure in to the throughput equation.

 

[AAaron123]

Not always a performance hit. In some instances it is faster for the
machine to read a compressed file and expand it in RAM than to read the
uncompressed file.

Imagine a largish file made up entirely of spaces that's also heavily
fragmented. When compressed this compressed file occupies ONE disk sector.
When that sector is read, the file can be uncompressed in RAM faster than
the disk head can move to the next sector on an uncompressed file.

Of course the process is never as simple as this. Smart drive logic,
buffers, what is being done with the records when they are retrieved, and
the phase of the moon all figure in to the throughput equation.

Thanks

 

[mial]

Thanks