Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of myson
myson

asked on

Transparent compression

Hello!
Is there any way how to transparently compress particular folders or whole drive (something like DriveSpace did in FAT16) on FAT32 file system (Win98). I know this can't be done by DriveSpace. Is there any third-party tool?

Thank you really much,
Martin Simonovsky.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of slink9
slink9

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of myson
myson

ASKER

Ok, this is written on MS' webpages, but isn't there any other program at all? I'm using a notebook, so I can't upgrade it.
If the majority of the files are data files, why not just Zip (http://www.winzip.com) them? A useful utility would be Zip Magic by Ontrack(http://www.ontrack.com/zipmagic/). Another utility, Zip Hunter from PCMag (http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,,s%3D1478%26a%3D21498,00.asp) states that it can search within Zip files; which may be useful if you are looking for something particular and forgot which file you zipped it into.

Any text-based files usually zip at around 80%-90%, (20%-10% of their normal size). If you have many files, this could add up to a substantial space savings.

I, for one, would never even consider compressing entire drives, due to past experiences. However, you may want to search through the Google results (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22hard+drive%22+compression+utility&btnG=Google+Search) for an adequate utility.
I did the Google search and came up empty.  Every reference I could find indicated that there is no compression available for FAT32.  Have you tried cleaning up temp files, removing unwanted programs and data files, and doing a general search of your C drive to see if there is old junk left behind that you do not need?
Avatar of myson

ASKER

Ok, slink9, the points are yours within a week if anybody doesn't reply.
What type of notebook?  A new hard drive may still be your best option.  Getting the data transferred may be easy also.  On my Dell I had room for a second hard drive.  In that case, you would put it in that slot and transfer the data over with a program such as DriveCopy, and then move it over to the master slot.
Avatar of myson

ASKER

points transfered.