Estimated Compression Ratio Does Not Match Drive Properties

• Microsoft Windows 95
• Microsoft Plus! For Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

The estimated compression ratio on the Compression tab in Drive properties remains at 1.0:1 despite changes to the estimated compression ratio in DriveSpace 3.

If you try to change the estimated ratio for the drive, you receive the following error message:

   Due to your current system configuration, your changes will have no
   effect on the amount of free disk space that Windows reports.

   DriveSpace is currently configured for optimum speed. With this
   configuration, DriveSpace does not use compression when saving changes
   to your files. Because of this, Windows uses a 1:1 estimated
   compression ratio to calculate free space, regardless of the setting
   in the compression ratio dialog box. Do you want to change the ratio
   anyway?

CAUSE

Compression Agent has been set to maximize performance. This is reflected in the following two Compression Methods settings:

• The "Which files do you want to UltraPack?" setting is set to "Do not UltraPack any files (maximum performance)."
• The "Do you want to HiPack the rest of your files?" setting is set to "No, store them uncompressed (maximum performance)."

RESOLUTION

If you want to compress files, change the Compression Methods settings to the HiPack values. For maximum performance, however, leave the settings as they are.

MORE INFORMATION

When the maximum performance settings are used, all files are uncompressed to a 1.0:1 ratio after Compression Agent is run. This prevents the estimated compression ratio from changing in the drive's properties.

When DriveSpace is set to High Performance in the performance tuning dialog, DriveSpace turns off on-line compression. To have the changes made to the ECR take effect, you must enable on-line compression.