Vista - Files in Blue Font.... Why are they in blue font?

I have a sencond HD (E that I use to backup my files (documents,
downloads, Music, etc...). I back the up using an utility.

I noticed that the files in my E: drive are in blue font... What is the
significance of the blue font?

Thanks,
mac

> I noticed that the files in my E: drive are in blue font... What is the
> significance of the blue font?

Hi Mac,

This indicates the files are compressed using NTFS Compression.

You can compress indiviual files, or you can specify Compression for a whole
volume in Disk Manager (under Admin Tools). If everything on the drive is
compressed, it probabaly means the whole Volume is compressed. That's okay -
just means you get more disk space. NTFS compression is very efficient, in
the performance dimension - there's very little overhead in compressing and
uncompressing the files (and in fact, some disk IO is even faster, because
there's less to read from disk). Compressed files can be used like any other
file, you just open them in an application etc, no special handling is
required.

Hope it helps,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

"Mac" <aaa@aaa.com> wrote in message
news:9C977A8A-89C9-4E63-96B8-CC33E4E5FBA2@microsoft.com...
>I have a sencond HD (E that I use to backup my files (documents,
>downloads, Music, etc...). I back the up using an utility.
>
> I noticed that the files in my E: drive are in blue font... What is the
> significance of the blue font?


In addition to your previous answer, you most probably got your files
compressed when you ran the Disk Cleanup utility and selected Compress Old
Files.

ss.

"Synapse Syndrome" <synapse@NOSPAMgomez404.elitemail.org> wrote...
>
> In addition to your previous answer, you most probably got your files
> compressed when you ran the Disk Cleanup utility and selected Compress Old
> Files.


I didn't know that! Thanks for the additional info.

--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

"Andrew McLaren" <andrew@fakeaddress.com> wrote in message
news:eT9AnL%231HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> "Synapse Syndrome" <synapse@NOSPAMgomez404.elitemail.org> wrote...
>>
>> In addition to your previous answer, you most probably got your files
>> compressed when you ran the Disk Cleanup utility and selected Compress
>> Old Files.
>
>
> I didn't know that! Thanks for the additional info.
>

No worries, but I think that I was actually wrong about the OP having done
this, as he actually seems to have said that the whole drive was compressed,
so maybe the option to format it as a compressed drive was done instead in
this case.

ss.

"Andrew McLaren" <andrew@fakeaddress.com> wrote:
"mac" wrote:

>> I noticed that the files in my E: drive are in blue font... What is the
>> significance of the blue font?

> This indicates the files are compressed using NTFS Compression.

> You can compress indiviual files, or you can specify Compression for a
> whole volume in Disk Manager (under Admin Tools). If everything on the
> drive is compressed, it probabaly means the whole Volume is compressed.
> That's okay - just means you get more disk space. NTFS compression is very
> efficient, in the performance dimension - there's very little overhead in
> compressing and uncompressing the files (and in fact, some disk IO is even
> faster, because there's less to read from disk). Compressed files can be
> used like any other file, you just open them in an application etc, no
> special handling is required.

On the last point ("no special handling required") there is at least one
exception, which applies only if you're using VMWare.

There is a tool the company distributes that allows users to mount a virtual
volume on a Windows host (allowing you, for example, to manipulate its
contents without having to boot into a virtual machine). Unfortunately, for
reasons I've not seen explained, the mount utility will refuse to talk to a
virtual disk that's hosted in a compressed file, even though VMWare has no
problems using that compressed file as a disk on a virtual machine.

Joe Morris