The manual task can best be used to compress specific files and folders on the system. The software Smart NTFS Compress automates the task, by scanning for files on the system that can be compressed.

The developer is not offering explanations on how the program works, but it seems to be only compressing files that yield a large enough storage space gain.

smart drive compress

The unregistered version of the program offers limited functionality. Only the drive letter and maximum file size in Megabyte can be configured in the program. A click on Smart Compress starts the scan of the selected drive.

Smart Compress will automatically compress files on the hard drive, and display statistics in the end about the operation.

The only problem that some users may have with the program is the inability to protect folders or files from being scanned by it. It would for instance make sense to protect the Windows directory from the scan, to avoid files being compressed in that directory.

Smart Drive Compress is available for download at the developer website.

Making use of this file compression can reduce the storage requirements of files a lot. The highest gains are achieved by compressing formerly uncompressed files, like text documents, emails or executables. The gain is insignificant for files that are already compressed, including jpg photos, mp3 music files, or avi movies.

NTFS Compression in a nutshell:

• NTFS compression is only available on volumes that use the NTFS file system
• It can be used to compress files and folders
• Files are decompressed automatically, and they appear as before in Windows.
• By default, NTFS compressed files and folders use different colors to distinguish them from standard files and folders./li>
• Users may experience a performance decrease when working with compressed files, as Windows needs to decompress them first before they can be used. This is usually not a big issue on modern PC systems.

How To Compress Folders and Files

The option to compress files or folders in Windows is directly available in Windows Explorer. To compress a file or folder perform the following tasks:

• Right-click the files or folders that need to be compressed and select Properties from the context menu. Take notice of the size on disk value, which lists the storage space requirements of the selected folders and files on the disk.
• Click on the Advanced button in the General tab, this opens an Advanced Attributes window.
• Select Compress contents to save disk space, click OK on the previous window, and then select to apply the changes either to the selected file or folder only, or all subfolders, and files as well.

compress contents save disk pace

The properties window stays open if Apply was selected to complete the compression. The size on disk value will now show the compressed size on the disk. You may notice that this can be considerably less depending on the files selected.

Folders and files can be uncompressed the same way. The only different is that the checkmark in third step of the process needs to be removed.

Please note that it is not advised to compress files and folders that are part of performance intensive tasks. These tasks include gaming, large files that need to be saved and loaded many times throughout the day or files that are used by the operating system.

Compression works best for files that are not used a lot, that are uncompressed and not part of performance intensive tasks. Office documents for instance are perfect for compression.

Windows 7 automatically displays compressed folders in different colors. Other operating systems may not, to change that perform the following operation:

1. Double-click Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
3. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
4. On the View tab, click to select the Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color check box.

Have you experience with NTFS compression? Share it with us in the comments.

The way Microsoft has implemented file compression in the operating system makes it difficulty to manage. That’s where the free software NTFS Ratio steps in.

NTFS Ratio can be used to analyse a folder structure on a hard drive that has been formatted with the NTFS file system. The program displays all files and folders in that structure as well as their compression status and ratio. The application will also display total stats for all files and folder in the file structure.

The list can be printed or copied to the clipboard. The reporting feature can be interesting for users who want to analyse the file compression on their computer system, especially its effectiveness. A right-click on a folder or file provides a Windows Explorer like context menu with options to compress and decompress folders.

The results of these actions are directly displayed in the program’s interface. NTFS Ratio is a niche software for users who use NTFS file compression. The program is compatible with most Windows operating systems including Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website (German but should not pose a problem for non-German speakers).

NTFS data compression has another advantage over popular file compression utilities. Since it is implemented in the file system the data compression is performed transparently. The filenames of compressed files stay the same and applications can access them as usual.

There are a few limitations though. One of the most important ones is that it is not possible to move compressed files to another file system. This means that it is not possible to move a compressed file from a NTFS file system to a Fat32 system.

AutoCompress is a lightweight portable data compression software that runs on all Windows NT based operating systems that make use of the NTFS file system. This includes Windows XP and Windows Vista. The tool can automatically compress and uncompress data in a specific directory. It does so by analyzing all files in a selected directory: age, size and data compression ratio.

The default values for compression are a file age of at least 28 days, a minimum size of 8192 bytes and a data compression ratio of at least 50%.

These values can be changed by the user. Similar values exist for uncompressing files of a selected directory.

AutoCompress is a sweet 13 Kilobyte data compression software. It could use some tinkering like implementing a browser to pick the directory to be analyzed or a better help file but those are minor issues. If you are looking for a good NTFS data compression software you might want to give AutoCompress a try.

Three parameters can be defined to determine if a file should be compressed or uncompressed.