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Resolved Problem compressing drive

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by Frank D, 2012/07/12.

  1. 2012/07/12
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    I'm trying to compress my external USB drive (drive F, 500-GB WD "Elements ") to gain more space. It has 90 GB free.

    In the drive's Properties dialog box I check the box at the left of "Compress this drive to save disk space" and click on Apply. An Applying attributes... dialog box opens and the compression operation starts. It doesn't get very far before an Error Applying Attributes dialog box opens, saying "An error occurred applying attributes to the file: F:\05a22a851152ae404eccd8103162\msxml6.msi. Access is denied." My options are Ignore, Ignore All, Try Again, and Cancel.

    I've tried Try Again and Cancel, then gone through the whole procedure three times, each time unsuccessfully, with the same message. I hesitate to use the Ignore or Ignore All options because I don't know what the consequences might be. :confused:

    Does anyone have experience with this operation and error message, who would be able to advise me how to proceed? Thank you. :)

    Frank D
     
    Frank D,
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  2. 2012/07/12
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Is the drive formatted Fat32 or NTFS?

    Guessing you know the part about how accessing the files will be a bit slower if you are successful.

    Do you have any large files you don't use often that you could ZIP up?
     
    Steve R Jones,
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  4. 2012/07/12
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi Frank D. The error message is simply stating that you don't have access to that file to be able to compress it.

    You can either try taking ownership of the file and then compress the whole drive again or the easier option would be to click on Ignore and have the compression process continue anyway.

    You won't run into any problems clicking on Ignore but just know that not every file will get compressed if you click the Ignore option. The data on the external harddrive will be fine and you shouldn't run into any problems using that method.
     
    Evan Omo,
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  5. 2012/07/12
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    Steve,
    The drive is formatted NTFS. Since I use the drive only for backups, a slight slowing down shouldn't be a problem. The only large files on the disk are my backups, so I wouldn't want to zip them up, and they are already compressed by the backup program. I just want to see how much space can be gained by this option. If it's not significant, I'll revert it to uncompressed. Thank you!

    Frank
     
    Frank D,
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  6. 2012/07/12
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    Evan,

    I took ownership of that file (twice) and made sure nothing was accessing or locking the file or drive, but it made no difference to the error message. I'll go ahead and click on the Ignore option and see what happens, and see if it results in any space savings worth the trouble of going through this operation for. If not, I'll revert it to the uncompressed state.

    I suspected that there wouldn't be a problem since Microsoft didn't offer any warnings at all, but I wanted to be as sure as I could that there weren't any unexpected or hidden dangers. Thank you!

    Frank
     
    Frank D,
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  7. 2012/07/12
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    Note: This is not for the faint-hearted. I started it up 5 hours ago, and the dialog box says it still has about 14 hours to go. Big question mark for me as to whether this is worth it. It would probably be best to use it on an empty drive.

    Frank
     
    Frank D,
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  8. 2012/07/12
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Yeah I forgot to mention that compressing a harddrive takes a lot of time but it also depends on how much data you have stored on it.

    Let us know if you run into any issues after the compression process completes.
     
    Evan Omo,
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  9. 2012/07/12
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    Evan,

    Will do.

    Frank

    BTW, it's now about 7 hours in and the dialog box says there's about 11 1/2 hours to go.
     
    Last edited: 2012/07/12
    Frank D,
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  10. 2012/07/13
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    I won't be worth it. Backup files are already compressed, so you won't gain space by trying to compress them again.
     
    Arie,
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  11. 2012/07/13
    Frank D

    Frank D Inactive Thread Starter

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    Arie,

    You're right. The compression operation finished and there's no change to the free space: it still shows 90 GB free.

    I've started uncompressing the drive now. It tells me that it will take 16 hours to do it. So the reverse of the compression operation takes just about as long as the original.

    So that was a lesson learned. :( Thanks! :)

    Frank

    P.S. I've marked this topic Resolved.
     
    Last edited: 2012/07/13
    Frank D,
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  12. 2012/07/13
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Thanks for letting us know. :)

    I know that sometimes the only way to learn about a new lesson or topic is to dive into it head first and experience it for yourself. Whether you fail or succeed, thats how we all learn from our mistakes.
     
    Evan Omo,
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