Is My SSD Subjected To DOUBLE READS & WRITES

[JazzyJazzjazzy]

Is My SSD Subjected To DOUBLE READS & WRITES when I Play A Game if I compress a game folder? Does it decompress every time I play or is it played in compressed state?

I want to save space but I do not want my SSD working overtime. Thank you,

[Masamune3210]

Files are decompressed on the fly, a chunk at a time into a memory buffer as the system is preparing to read from a specific chunk.

[Iridium-IO]

To add to what @Masamune3210 said, when you initially compress a game folder it will have to rewrite all the data but from that point it stays compressed - anytime the game accesses or loads those files, they're decompressed in RAM so your SSD won't be constantly hit.

However, when a game is updated, any files that are changed will be decompressed.

Regardless, SSD lifespans are long enough that you'll almost certainly upgrade the drive before it fails due to too many writes - I have an SSD from 2009 as a soft backup drive which is still going strong, and it doesn't even support TRIM.

[Masamune3210]

I have wrote 100's of TB's to a Portable 500GB SSD that I have and its still going strong, just like new. A good majority of drives are now starting to get NAND expectations so far into the future that you are likely to suffer other malfunctions first or upgrade due to progression of tech. You have nothing to fear.

[JazzyJazzjazzy]

Thank you all for your prompt and concise explanations.

[JazzyJazzjazzy]

Okay, compressed a folder.

1. Should the folder turn blue if I have "Show Compressed Folder In Color" option selected? Or, since not all folders may be compressed, will the ones that were compressible change color?

2. How can I determine which folder I compressed using Windows Explorer or your software or must I keep a written log of folders that I compressed?

3. If I compress folder "A", on drive "D" and subsequently compress the entire drive "D" will your software skip folder "A" during the whole drive "D" compression phase?

[Masamune3210]

Explorer will not show a blue file/folder for anything other than LZNT1, which is the old compression enabled through the Properties window. It will not show for any of the other compression formats that were added later.

Easiest way to tell is to look at size vs size on disk, If there is a gross difference, it's likely either compressed or has sparse files in it.

That one you will have to wait on Imminent to answer, as I haven't messed with the program in a bit.

[Iridium-IO]

3. If I compress folder "A", on drive "D" and subsequently compress the entire drive "D" will your software skip folder "A" during the whole drive "D" compression phase?

Don't use the Explorer option to "Compress Contents to Save Disk Space", that uses the old LZNT1 compression which is slower and worse in every way. The same applies if you compress an entire disk using anything but compact.exe with the /EXE flag. If you compress the entire drive, because that's a different type of compression it will undo everything done with this program and rewrite it again.

It's like converting a .zip file to a .rar file - you have to first extract everything before you can compress it again using a different format

[JazzyJazzjazzy]

I would use your program to compress the entire disk, not Windows. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

[Iridium-IO]

You shouldn't be able to, I thought I added a block against that.