If I compress the drive will it degrade the performance of my machine significantly?
this will depend on many factors, however, you compression will effect the performance. It will depend on each file.
2. What kind of compression ratio can I expect to achieve?
this again will depand on the file. text files, word, excel file will compress rather well if they don't have any graphics. Database files and graphic files and pdf don't compress much at all
3. Is the compression process reverseable, i.e. can I return easily to a non compressed disk drive?
Yes, you simply need to choose uncompress.
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by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-21 at 16:48:19ID: 25156794
1. Yes, compressing hard drives will cause a noticeable drop in performance as each file accessed will need to be decompressed on the fly before it can be used. This adds overhead to the system.
2. Depends on the contents of your drive. If your drive is mostly photos, videos and music you won't achieve any additional compression at all (or rather next to none) . If your hard drive it primarily documents you can expect anywhere from 25% - 50% compression.
3. Yes, assuming that the amount of data stored on the drive isn't greater than the drive's native capacity. If you have more files stored on the drive than would normally fit you will not be able to decompress the hard drive until those files are erased or moved to another drive.
May I ask, why are you interested in compressing your drive? Maybe we can find a better solution to your goal.