Discussion 2: NTFS Compression

[Kaiser]

Now let's discuss NTFS compressed folders/files. The benefit is huge if you know how to use it. On a network directory, compressed files in a dominately Windows network is beneficial, BUT must have a server that can handle the writes. What do I mean by this? The benefit when SMB makes the handshake with a Win2K node or higher the file crosses the network compressed. In other words the file comes across the wire compressed and the client computer decompresses it. This means a drastic, 1/2 or more for normal files, network drag difference because essentially if the file is compressed on the server and takes up 20MB it would normally take up 60MB to execute it. Well, with Windows SMB it only pushed 20MB across your network, instead of 60MB. The difference comes when we come to compressed media files such are DivX, MP3 or others. The file, if saved will normally be larger and cause such an I/O operation when trying to save that it almost seems ridiculous. I have saved DivX compressed AVI files that are 1.36GB in size and they end up being 1.37GB. The operation takes FOREVER to copy over a network when sending to the network destination. When under a load, and a server is feeding numerous compressed files at a time like AVIs, they tend to stutter, flicker, or lose audio/video sync timing. In the end you are better serving compressed media from a non-compressed volume.