Compress contents to save disk space?

So, I'm running low on disk space on my computer..I think it's because I have a lot of music.

I went to my music library,

selected all the files to highlight the files my music library,

I right-clicked, went to properties,

then to advanced,

and it had an option that said "Compress contents to save disk space"

I just want to make sure that if I do this I'll still be able to listen to my music.

It might seem like a stupid question but I really want to make sure

Comments

  • Yes you'll still be able to access the files like nothing ever changed. However access times may be a little slower because the computer needs to temporarily decompress the file when in use. This is more CPU intensive than non-compressed files, but if you have a decent CPU this won't really matter.

    On a more technical side, I wouldn't use windows' compressing feature unless you have the files backed-up on another disk. If the disk decides to crap-out, I imagine the files being compressed by the NTFS file system would make things more complicated when trying to recover the files.

    EDIT: If you do decide to compress the music, it may take a while at first to apply these settings (because it's compressing the files).

    In response to Albert W: Windows uses a lossless compression method, so the files will not degrade in quality at all. However you do have a point about not saving much space. Multimedia files such as music and video do not compress well and I wouldn't expect to reduce the file size by a whole lot.

  • Hi There,

    Music files are already compressed to a great extent. So I doubt you would save very much disk space.

    There is an easy way to find out however.

    Pick one or two music files and note how large the files are then use the compress option on those then check the final file size and try to play them to make sure the sound quality has not degraded.

    That's what I would do.

    Hope this helps,

    Al

Sign In or Register to comment.