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Regarding the remark about built-in encryption, how does it differ from TrueCrypt in the scenario of forgetting the password/pass phrase?

If we lose the key the data remains encrypted unless someone can crack it. So apparently, the risk is pretty much the same. Or is it?

Forgetting your password is one thing. And yes, if you forget your password in TrueCrypt you're just as screwed there too.

I guess I've seen just enough instances of people creating new user accounts and deleting the old, or just somehow messing up their Windows user accounts and accidentally losing access to their encrypted data that it seems an unnecessary additional risk.

On top of that TrueCrypt containers are portable, platform independent and can be transferred in encrypted form. Not always true for Windows file system encryption - if you copy a file it travels unencrypted.

Windows filesystem compression has a role, I'm just saying you should understand the ramifications when choosing whether or not to use it.

-Leo

Posted by: novice at July 31, 2008 7:43 PM

Thx but how do I uncompress them?

Just do what's displayed above, but make sure that the "Compress" checkbox is unchecked.

-Leo

Posted by: Nord Carls at August 5, 2008 10:52 PM

I am actually interested in doing teh reverse, uncompress. Is there a way to uncompress the files that were compressed as old compressed files. I activated clean disk and realized it was going to delete all my old compressed files, I then cancelled the action and later found a lot of my files to be blue in script. Does this mean those are all compressed files and if so, how do I uncompredd them?

-William.

Just uncheck the "Compress file" option in the file properties.
- Leo
10-Jan-2009
Posted by: William at January 9, 2009 8:14 AM

Leo, thanks for some very useful information. I have just been battling with updating my McAfee protection and was disturbed to see all the file names in blue. Your webpage (which I found on Google) gave me the answer quickly and helpfully.

Posted by: David Downer at January 20, 2009 4:07 PM

Thanks, Leo! I was searching all day for an answer online, and all these "major websites" had zero idea, or rather their sites were difficult to navigate through if they did have an answer. I appreciate the help!

Posted by: Juan at May 23, 2009 7:13 PM

Some of the blue files are audio files I've compressed into mP3s. But others are audio files I have not compressed. Some are Cakewalk (the audio recording software I use) project files which I have not compressed. Often when I try to open these I get a message saying that audio has been replaced with silence and that the file cannot be found. When I open it, there is silence, and a straight line where there should be audio waves.
Considering the comment above about clean disk, if I have run disk defragmentation or disk check would those eliminate audio? I looked at the "compress files" command on some files as you indicated and found that "compress files" was checked, though I do not recall doing that since I didn't know about it! I unchecked them, the files now show in black but there is still no audio.

Posted by: Michael B at February 8, 2010 12:25 PM

Thanks Leo, I was confused why my files were looking in Blue. I had windows XP SP2 and recently upgraded to SP3. After the upgrade some files were in blue. I assumed blue files were of little use and deleted several of them. But anyways, this is some useful info.

Vijay

Posted by: Vijay at March 29, 2010 10:19 PM

re compression adding extra work to read/write files - I have read that modern CPU's execute the compression algorithms much faster than the disk i/o (for non SSD disks), so that file compression may actually speed up file i/o from disk.

Posted by: perfb at February 22, 2011 12:02 PM

THANK YOU SO MUCH! IT WAS VERY HELPFUL. I WAS SURPRISED WHEN I SEE MY FILES IN BLUE AND I ALMOST PANICKED. GOOD THING, I GOOGLED IT AND FOUND THIS ARTICLE! :)

Posted by: Missy at April 20, 2011 6:42 AM

Very helpful, easy to find (and more important, understand) the answer - thanks, Leo!

Posted by: Terry at June 11, 2011 7:42 AM
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