do I really want to compress all my data?

Hi Dana,

Are you compressing your entire Hard Drive? Or just certain data folders on the Hard Drive?

Compressing data such as photos, documents, pdf's, and other similar files is perfectly OK!

A file is constructed of a bunch of metadata. Metadata is simply data about data. Well, there is certain metadata the is just unnecessary in a file and has no benefit. With compression, the file gets processed and stripped away of some of the metadata and its attributes, which results in a much smaller file size.

However, there are certain data that you do NOT want to compress. These include binary files that construct the Operating System (OS). If attempting to compress these types of files, then corruption is likely to occur or can occur. When compressing data, ensure that you can do it without affecting your Operating System files.

The reason why your compression is taking so long is because you MOST likely have a very low disk speed. Depending on your Laptop model and year, you most likely have a Hard Drive that has a speed of 5400 Revolutions Per Minute (RPMs). This is.... the magnetic disks inside the hard drive that are spinning around a single spindle to read and write data. Low RPMs result in slow disk speed, which slows EVERYTHING down. *And to point out, if your disk is old and has a lot of read/writes that have occurred in its lifetime, then the speed of the disks would degrade. This is called performance degradation.

In your scenario, I would assume you have a slow disk, low RAM, and a low-end processor. Given these factors, it would take time to process and compress all of the data on your drive.

I would suggest killing the compression operation. Compression is really meant for those individuals that are EXTREMELY low on disk space and they have no choice OR you have pure RAW data that can slow down operations in an application you are working with, in which case you would compress the data to strip out some of that unnecessary metadata.

In the future, when you get a brand new machine, it's better to setup compression on your disk before you start using your machine. The data will then get compressed in increments rather than in one sitting that takes a very long time.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Mark

Not sure what OSX you're using but try clicking on the Apple logo on the top left corner. Select "About This Mac" and then go to the Storage tab. You should see your hard drive space there 🙂

Hi Dana,

Sure. Here is how you can do that (2 ways):

1. Pop open the Apple menu in the upper left had corner (Apple Icon), then

2.Select About This Mac.

3. On OS X Yosemite or newer, click the Storage tab in the toolbar to see how much disk space you have available.

4. (On OS X Mountain Lion or Mavericks, click the More info... button, then click Storage.) You’ll also get a simplified overview of what sort of files are eating up your storage space.

Another way is to do the following:

1. Open Spotlight by clicking the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen

2. Type Disk Utility in the search box that appears

3. Once Disk Utility comes up in the list and is highlighted, press the Enter key.

4. Once Disk Utility opens, select your hard drive’s name from the list. Default is "Macintosh HD"

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Mark

You're welcome, Dana. I'm glad I was able to help you out with your issues.

We're always lurking the forums if you have any additional help in the future.

Take care and have a great weekend!

Thanks,

Mark