I have a huge collection of small files – we're talking millions of them – that are taking up an excessive amount of disk space. For example, one folder is roughly 2GB in size but it's consuming about 100GB due to the inefficiencies from the minimum sector size. I'm looking to archive these files but want to keep them accessible for future viewing and editing. I've explored various options but each has its limitations:
- ISO files require recompiling if I need to change anything.
- TAR files lack native support on Windows.
- ZIP archives don't support thumbnail previews effectively and file navigation isn't smooth in photo viewing apps.
- VHDX seems promising, but I'm unsure about its resilience, scalability, or how well it fits my needs.
Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks!
5 Answers
Have you checked out the built-in Windows compression? Just right-click on a folder, choose properties, and look for the option to compress contents to save space. It’s pretty handy!
Just a heads up, there is Tar support for Windows if you're interested. You can check out Tar for Windows to give you more options.
Your best bet might be to invest in more storage drives or set up a NAS (Network Attached Storage). If you ask me, ZIP files are the way to go since you can easily open them on older PCs, but they do have their own quirks. Just keep in mind that if you have terabytes of data, it might still be a struggle with wasted space.
For ZIP files, Windows actually has built-in support, though they call it something different. You can compress a folder by right-clicking on it and selecting "compress to." This will create a ZIP file that works just like a regular folder.
That's true, but I find that while ZIP files are great for accessing, modifying them gets really slow with a large volume of files.
It would help to know what kinds of files you're dealing with. If they're millions of small text files, the solution might differ from just binary files. Are these from something specific like an archive or just an accumulation over the years?
I've got family photos, plenty of PDFs, and various small audio samples. It's a 20-year collection of stuff, and I really want an easy way to sort and access everything.
Totally agree, even if you get extra storage, you'll still be wasting loads of space on backups.