Resolved What is "compress old files" when i want to clean my HDD?

hi guys.

whenever i need to free some space on my harddirve i see this option "compress old files" which is always really really large. i never "tick" it to saves space because of a really bad experience i had once -
a few years ago i tried to tick this option and run the disk clean-up. it took the computer a really really long time to finish the clean-up ( i can't remember if i rebooted it to make it stop or if it got locked up or even crashed or just finished) but the end result was that i could no longer reboot my computer. it would get stuck in the blue screen or something like that and i had to format and it was a HUGE headache.

SO, my questions are -

1) what is the "compress old files" option?

2) is that option a valid way to free HDD space? should i use it?

3) was what happened to me some sort of one-time-fluke or am i in danger it will happen again?


thanks

 

thanks for the input, mate.

but i am not sure if i should use this method to free up space or not. if it may be dangerous (even if it works perfectly) or not? if it's recommended or not.

clean disk suggests that using this will free up 62GB of HDD for me. more than what i need should i do it?

and how long might it take?

 

62 GB would only be a guess. Exact space would depend on the type of files compressed.

Again the time would depend on the no.of files, type of files & speed of your computer/hard disk so it very hard to predict.

 

thanks guys.

a shame i still didnt get an answer from ou if u think i should use this option or if it's hazardous to my computer.
is there a reason NOT to do this? can it damage anything?

 

just because u dont need to use it doesnt mean i u think it's a bad idea.

but thanks for the feedback, gents. i will probably let it run over night.

cheers.