Size and Size on disk

[inoesomestuff]

when i right click on the program files and then go to properties it says 11.9GB next to size and 2.35GB next to size on disk, why is there such a big difference and what is the difference betwen these two values? im running a 80GB split into two 40s and a 10GB that i use only to archive stuff

[sp_100]

Is compression involved?

[inoesomestuff]

im sure there are some zip files or rar files on the disk but would it make THAT much of a difference?

[sp_100]

I don’t know about your particular case (compression utilities, file types, etc.), but the native NTFS compression (right-click file/folder -> Properties -> Advanced -> Compress contents to save disk space) has the following effect on my Windows Updates backup files:



Hope this helps!

[inoesomestuff]

so then the "size on disk" is the actual space that its taking up right?

[sp_100]

Originally Posted by inoesomestuff

so then the "size on disk" is the actual space that its taking up right?

(IF we are talking about the NTFS Compression) Right.
However …

NTFS allocates disk space based on uncompressed file size. If you copy a compressed file to an NTFS volume with enough space for the compressed file, but not enough space for the uncompressed file, you might get an error message stating that there is not enough disk space for the file, and the file will not be copied to the volume.

[inoesomestuff]

ok thx for the help

[sp_100]

anytime!