Should I "compress" my Drive C: if I am short on space?

XP users may be aware of a feature within Windows that allows users to reclaim disk space by compressing files on the disk. This does increase disk storage to some degree, but it also creates a delay in using the system because it forces the OS to decompress each file before using it. This therefore should only be done to non-system disks (not Drive C:) so that the OS remains responsive.

An unfortunate side effect of compressing the Drive C: is that certain 3rd party boot managers can also be compressed. And since they are what load the OS, and since the OS is required to uncompress them, the system no longer boots. It is highly recommended that this not be done to a system with a single hard disk, especially those systems like our M10 Netbook or the v10e Netbook as the boot manager also governs the system's factory restore feature.