NTFS Compression & Compressed Zip folders

[Sathish]

Hi

Im confusing about NTFS Compression and Compressed Zip Folders in Windows XP..
Any body plz tell what is the difference between these two...

[Vishal Gupta]

NTFS compression will compress a file to decrease its size. It'll not change its extension. Also it'll not make any archive containing the original file. Windows shows the compressed files in Blue color.

Compressed Zip folder is a built-in feature in Windows, which creates an archive containing the file just like 3rd party software WinZip, WinRAR, etc do. By using this built-in feature, you don't need to install these 3rd party utilities.

PS: Compressed Zip folders feature can be used in both FAT32 nd NTFS paritions but NTFS compression can only be used in NTFS partitions as the name suggests.

[Sathish]

then...
if a drive have formatted in NTFS, why windows made to create a compressed file using built-in-compression utility which is already resides in a compressed File Systeme.?

[goobimama]

Zip files are universal. They can be read on Win95, to a Mac to Linux. NTFS on the other hand is proprietary. Also most people are familiar with Zip files. Making them use some different form of compression will just confuse the end user.

[Vishal Gupta]

Originally Posted by Betruger

then...
if a drive have formatted in NTFS, why windows made to create a compressed file using built-in-compression utility which is already resides in a compressed File Systeme.?

NTFS compression compresses a single file but using Compressed zip file feature, you can create a single ZIP file containing more than one file/folder which you can share with others.

Another difference is, NTFS compression compresses the file automatically unless you disable it, on the other hand Compressed Zip file allows you to compress no of files whenever you want without using any 3rd party utility.

[Sathish]

So.. is any difference in compression ratio..?

[QwertyManiac]

There isn't a point in comparing. ZIP is portable compression while NTFS provides it at your file system level, and is obviously non-portable.

NTFS does compress lesser than Zip (Differs with certain cases) but that doesn't mean you are gonna convert all your system files into ZIP. Nor would you use NTFS compression for a file you wish to share/move post-compression.