Bad XP bad! Compressed some files...

[Korporativ]

The other day I was running the disk cleanup utility as part of my usual spyware, excess files, defrag setup. It seemed to be taking unusually long, so I looked more closely, and it said "compressing old or unused files". Instantly I clicked cancel... stupid thing, I've NEVER had that checked, why did it suddenly pop up?! Well, after that... a bit of my system performance has utterly gone to crap. My question is this: How do I get it to decompress those files if I have no idea what it compressed in the first place? Also, it seems that every time I defragment the drive, and reboot... its back to being about 5% fragmented for absolutely no reason. Any help or suggestions would be MUCH appreciated as I don't feel like reinstalling XP at the moment.

- Korporativ

 

[montag451]

Displaying Compressed Files in Color
You can change the display of files and folders that are compressed in Windows Explorer and My Computer, so it is easy to see them. To display compressed files in color:
1. Double-click Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
3. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
4. On the View tab, click to select the Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color check box.

 

[LTC8K6]

It's nothing to even worry about. You will never know that the files were compressed. This is something that you will never notice at all. If you start using those old files again, they will be uncompressed and you will never know the difference.

It's likely that your cancellation uncompressed the files anyway.

I think you are confusing NTFS file compression with ZIP or ARC. They have nothing to do with each other. You can work with NTFS files while they are compressed, for instance.

NTFS compression


If you do not have an NTFS drive, this option is not available. To determine whether your drive is formatted with NTFS, open My Computer, right-click a drive, and then click Properties. The file system is indicated on the General tab.
You can compress individual files and folders using NTFS compression, as well as entire NTFS drives.
You can compress a folder without compressing its contents.
You can work with NTFS-compressed files without decompressing them.
You can display NTFS-compressed file and folder names in a different color to make them easier to identify.
You may notice a decrease in performance when working with NTFS-compressed files. When you open a compressed file, Windows automatically decompresses it for you, and when you close the file, Windows compresses it again. This process may decrease your computer?s performance.
NTFS-compressed files and folders only remain compressed while they are stored on an NTFS drive.
You cannot encrypt an NTFS-compressed file.
NTFS file encryption is not available on Windows XP Home Edition.

 

[Korporativ]

Hmm interesting... because the drive won't fully defragment now, and i did notice a bit of slowdown after doing it. BTW after showing compressed files, on C: it shows quite a few files in blue, even ones i've used recently.

 

[montag451]

If you don't want them compressed,
Right click C drive in win explorer.
Click Properties to display the Properties dialog box.
On the General tab, select or clear the Compress drive to save disk space check box, and then click OK.
In the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box, select whether to make the compression apply to the entire volume or only to the root folder.

 

[LTC8K6]

What montag said, You may actually want to compress the drive, files, and subfolders first. Then do it again and uncheck the option to be sure everything has been uncompressed.

There is no way to uncompress selected folders without finding them manually, afaik.

 

[montag451]

what ltc8k6 [what a name!! ;-) ] says is true.
Another option might be to go through all folders in root and disable compression - for whole volume