Find Files older than 6 months and zip them

This depends a bit on your PowerShell versions. Compress-Archive is new(ish).

$files = Get-ChildItem Path -File | Where-Object LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddMonths(-6) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName
Compress-Archive $files -DestinationPath something.zip

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should use the -recurse, Get-ChildItem Path -File  -Recurse

Also should I utilise the lastaccesstime instead of lastwritetime?

Up to you really. I don't much care when files were opened, when they were last written to is often the best metric from my point of view. It's all subjective though, you might key off CreationTime instead.

I have this script:

$pathname = Read-Host "Please Enter Path Name: "
GCI $pathname -Recurse | 
	?{$_.LastAccessTime -le (Get-date).AddMonths(-1)} | 
  Select FullName,CreationTime,LastAccessTime,LastWriteTime |
Export-Csv "c:\$(($pathname -split "\\")[-1]).csv" -NTI 

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what is the best way to add the compress-archive command to this script? also any suggestions for improvement?

I am getting this error:

Exception calling "Write" with "3" argument(s): "Stream was too long."
At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive\Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive.psm1:819 char:29
+ ...                     $destStream.Write($buffer, 0, $numberOfBytesRead)
+                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : IOException

also LastAccessTime -le (Get-date).AddMonths(-1)  - does this means files accessed less than a month ago?

You're likely hitting the 2GB limit on the zip file. How much do you have in $files?

No, it means accessed a month or more ago. When comparing date, a date is considered less if it comes before the value on the right hand side of the expression. For example, yesterday is less than today.

(Get-Date).AddDays(-1) -lt (Get-Date)

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also I need the zip files saved in the same path along with the same files name after that I need the non zipped file deleted. should I create a new entry on experts exchange?

also files that are 1gb or more

That 2GB stream error needs figuring out first. Chances are it'll be best to move the files to a staging area so the entire directory can be zipped.

Let's start with that:

$path = 'C:\Source'
$stagingPath = 'D:\Destination'

Push-Location $path
Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse -File | 
	Where-Object LastAccessTime -le (Get-date).AddMonths(-1) |
    ForEach-Object {
        $relative = Resolve-Path $_.Directory -Relative
        $destination = Join-Path $stagingPath $relative.TrimStart('.')
        if (-not (Test-Path $destination)) {
            $null = New-Item $destination -ItemType Directory
        }

        Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $destination
    }
Pop-Location

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Start with that and check the size of everything. If it works, Copy-Item can be change to Move-Item (possibly). Alternatively, we can do one pass to generate the list, archive things, and if that works, delete the items on the list.

> also files that are 1gb or more

It needs to be 7-zip then. The .NET components don't stand a chance. Not a big deal though, start with collecting the files together. Obviously for files that large the size of the staging area is kind of important.

I have written the code below:

$pathname = "C:\Users\kabir.uddin"
$files = Get-ChildItem $pathname -Recurse -File | 
	Where-Object LastAccessTime -le (Get-date).AddMonths(-1)
  
		foreach ($f in $files)
		{
			$Name = $f.fullname
			#Compress-Archive $f -DestinationPath $path\$Name.zip
		}

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I will create a new entry on experts exchange

apologies on the code its $f.name not $f.fullname