uncompress hard drive

[varun101]

i compressed my hard drive a while ago, using windows xp's built in
disk compressor and now i wish to uncompress it. this worked for most
files, but it doesnt decompress some system files, as they are in use
by the system. how can i decompress these?

 

[John John]

From the Recovery Console use attrib -c command. Example:

attrib -c c:\somefile.ext

changes the compression attribute on somefile.ext located at C:\


attrib -c %systemroot%\system32\somefile.ext

changes the compression attribute on somefile.exe located in the
system32 folder. I'm not 100% sure but I think you might be able to use
wildcards to change the whole lot, as (needs to be confirmed):

attrib -c %systemroot%\system32\*.*


Or you can use Mv.exe or Inuse.exe to switch files with copies from the
dll cache at the next reboot, just make sure you are replacing with
identical/same version files.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184408/

John

 

[varun101]

thanks, but theres no easier way to do it? cause some of the files are
compressed and some arent, and i cant do each manually, that would take
forever. is it even worth my trouble? does it impact the computer
performance that much?

thanks

 

[John John]

If you want to "uncompress" ALL the files on the drive you can use the
compact command at the root of the volume. Open a command prompt and
navigate to the root folder (cd\) and issue:

compact /u /i /a /s:\

The command will uncompress from the current folder subfolders on down.
If you want to start at the Windows folder then navigate there before
issuing the command. For help on the command use the /? switch, example:

compact /?

You can run the command from a Safe Mode with Command Prompt boot, that
way the fewest system files will be in use when the command is run.

John

 

[varun101]

thanks, ill try that and report back soon

If you want to "uncompress" ALL the files on the drive you can use the
compact command at the root of the volume. Open a command prompt and
navigate to the root folder (cd\) and issue:

compact /u /i /a /s:\

The command will uncompress from the current folder subfolders on down.
If you want to start at the Windows folder then navigate there before
issuing the command. For help on the command use the /? switch, example:

compact /?

You can run the command from a Safe Mode with Command Prompt boot, that
way the fewest system files will be in use when the command is run.

John