howard schwartz wrote:
>
> Unless I am missing something, disk compression and, indeed, ordinary
> file compression (e.g., zip, arj etc.) solve the problem of wasting
> disk space because of a minimum cluster size. How? They are ways
> to make the OS treat a single file as if it were a directory.
>
> To the compression program, a compressed file is an archive with
> a lot of different files on it. To the OS, it is just a big file
> like any other file. With disk compression, there is only one big
> file for a whole logical drive. So the only cluster that is not full
> with data is perhaps the ``last'' one.
>
> Yes?
And no.
That situation only exists at the moment you have just created the compressed
disk. As soon as you manipulate a few files, delete, etc. you create the
same holes in the "big" file that would have been made on the UNcompressed
disk. These holes obviously "map" to the disk, but with a changed effective
cluster size due to the compression.
Eventually, your "big" file becomes just as fragmented as your HD would be.
Test it. <g>
- Clarence Verge
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