XP system has compressed almost all files on the drive (how?)

[XP Guy]

I was looking at the XP system of a friend.

His main comment was that it was running more slowly than usual. Some
apps were giving errors.

I looked at the list of running apps, running services, the auto-run
section, the system tray. Didn't seem to have anything unnecessary or
unexplained running.

I browsed the hard drive and almost all the files I came across were
shown in blue (not black). I enabled attribute display and sure enough
the files were compressed.

I looked at the folder attributes and followed a few folder trees from
bottom to top and none of them showed that the compressed attribute was
set. The drive itself was not configured as compressed.

Is there any obvious (or arcane) system setting that could result in
compressing practically all the files currently on the drive?

I did a file search for all files created, modified or accessed in the
last 3 months, and sorted the list by each of those 3 characteristics,
but could not see any pattern that would indicated when the file
compression was done.

Perhaps one of the event logs might tell when it was done, by what
method or process?

More importantly, is there any easy way to decompress all the files?
Perhaps an appropriately-crafted command line function? (decompress c:
/all ???)

Will a Norton Ghost operation (create a clone of the drive) do that?

 

[Leonard Grey]

None, unless your friend has (foolishly, IMHO) installed software to do so.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Creating a 'clone' of the drive won't affect anything. If you think what
the analogous name 'clone' actually means, it will create a 'perfect' COPY
of a partition - that is what cloning does.

About your other question - is there a simple 'command line' function -
yes - type the following into a 'Command Prompt' (dos-box) window :

compact /a /s /u c:\*.*


(or replace the 'c:' for the drive you want to decompress all compressed
files on)

....this will the decompress any files in all folders on a drive that have
been compressed.
If you want to know just how to use this command - type :

compact /?


... at the 'Command Prompt' or look up 'compact' in the XP 'Help and
Support Centre' on the 'Start Menu'

Hope this is of some help to you.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Twayne]

I was looking at the XP system of a friend.

His main comment was that it was running more slowly than usual. Some
apps were giving errors.

Pretty unlikely it would be from XPs compression. Are there a lot of
zip files or is it for sure XP's compression?

I looked at the list of running apps, running services, the auto-run
section, the system tray. Didn't seem to have anything unnecessary or
unexplained running.

Those wouldn't be expected to be compressed. Were they?

I browsed the hard drive and almost all the files I came across were
shown in blue (not black). I enabled attribute display and sure
enough the files were compressed.

Decompress a folder in XP and all files/folders under it will decompress
if you tell them to.

I looked at the folder attributes and followed a few folder trees from
bottom to top and none of them showed that the compressed attribute
was set. The drive itself was not configured as compressed.

Is there any obvious (or arcane) system setting that could result in
compressing practically all the files currently on the drive?

Non-use of the files. XP does that to save space. They uncompress as
soon as they get used until/unless they age out again. See if that's
happening.
XP's compression can be turned off.

I did a file search for all files created, modified or accessed in the
last 3 months, and sorted the list by each of those 3 characteristics,
but could not see any pattern that would indicated when the file
compression was done.

If it's from XP, you wouldn't necessarily see a pattern except maybe a
range of days after the Create date or Revised date. If never opened,
I'd expect them to show compressed.

Perhaps one of the event logs might tell when it was done, by what
method or process?

Not that I know of.

More importantly, is there any easy way to decompress all the files?
Perhaps an appropriately-crafted command line function? (decompress
c: /all ???)

Pick top level folder: Properties, Advanced, remove compression and
answer yes to decompress all files/folders under it.

Will a Norton Ghost operation (create a clone of the drive) do that?

No.


Grab a few of the directories that have executables in them and remove
the compression setting. When asked, say yes to for the folder contents
too.

It really just sounds like the normal age-compress cycle for XP. He h
asn't used any of them, so XP compressed them for non-use and to create
more room. The first time they get used they will be decompressed.

So far as the description goes, I don't think the compression is the
cause of a slowdwn. He probably needs to perform nomal housekeeping
chores or possible has malware installed. Both should get attention.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Tim Meddick]

Twayne,
the guy says that he has checked the file's attributes and
confirmed that it has the 'C' [compressed] attribute.

As far as I am aware, it can only be Microsoft's compression algorithm being
employed - other types of file compression does not set the 'compressed bit'
or show up as 'blue'

I don't know of any 3rd-party software that sets the 'C' 'compressed bit'
using Microsoft's own compression technique - but I could be wrong.

The 'easy' way to [globally] decompress all files on a drive is to use the
command I quoted, with the recursive '/s' switch.


compact /a /s /i /u c:\*.*


...(I have amended this command a little to include the '/i' switch to
continue even if errors occur, in case there are any files encountered that
you don't have the required permissions for )

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Twayne]

Twayne,
the guy says that he has checked the file's attributes and
confirmed that it has the 'C' [compressed] attribute.

As far as I am aware, it can only be Microsoft's compression
algorithm being employed - other types of file compression does not
set the 'compressed bit' or show up as 'blue'

I don't know of any 3rd-party software that sets the 'C' 'compressed
bit' using Microsoft's own compression technique - but I could be
wrong.

AFAIK you are correct but I've never looked for it either.
Intresting sidenote: I always heard that XP's compression was actually
the equivalent of pkzip's standard compression but I get a smaller zip
file than XP gets when it compresses the files. So it's not really a
legacy compression either. Same results with WinZip 12 set for Legacy.
Learn something every day I guess. At least WinZip agreed with pkzip so

The 'easy' way to [globally] decompress all files on a drive is to
use the command I quoted, with the recursive '/s' switch.


compact /a /s /i /u c:\*.*

Hmm, guess I missed that post; Good point. I never even thought of it.

Regards,

Twayne

 

[XP Guy]

Compress old files option in disk cleanup was NOT checked. It's
properties for file compression was set to 50 days (but again, it was
not enabled). Disk Cleanup reports that something like 11 mb would be
recovered if it was enabled.

The drive itself is not set for drive compression, no folders are
marked as compressed. Attribute "C" is set for files listed in color
blue.

Some stats:

About 75 to 80% of the files in /windows/system32 are compressed. In
total, that folder (and all sub-folders) has 1.33 gb in 7k files, but
size on disk is 963 mb. About 1/2 the files in /windows/system are
compressed. No files in c: root are compressed.

In every other folder I look at on the drive, many, most or all the
files are compressed.

The entire drive (excluding files in c: root) has 95 gb in 215k files,
size on disk is 81 gb. Drive capacity is 320 gb (single partition,
ntfs).

Will try some of the uncompress commands list here in the next few days.

 

[Twayne]

Compress old files option in disk cleanup was NOT checked. It's
properties for file compression was set to 50 days (but again, it was
not enabled). Disk Cleanup reports that something like 11 mb would be
recovered if it was enabled.

The drive itself is not set for drive compression, no folders are
marked as compressed. Attribute "C" is set for files listed in color
blue.

Some stats:

About 75 to 80% of the files in /windows/system32 are compressed. In
total, that folder (and all sub-folders) has 1.33 gb in 7k files, but
size on disk is 963 mb. About 1/2 the files in /windows/system are
compressed. No files in c: root are compressed.

In every other folder I look at on the drive, many, most or all the
files are compressed.

The entire drive (excluding files in c: root) has 95 gb in 215k files,
size on disk is 81 gb. Drive capacity is 320 gb (single partition,
ntfs).

Will try some of the uncompress commands list here in the next few
days.

You might have to do AV and spyware scans to get rid of malware before
those fixes will "stick" or even work. If it wasn't malware then at
some point, the compression was turned on IMO. I can't envision any
other way at least. It could have been turned on and then off.
Twayne`