How to Make Folders Take Up Less Space
By C. Taylor
Even with the availability of high-capacity hard drives, you can never have enough storage space. This is particularly true for businesses that work with digital content. Although you can move files and folders to secondary drives to free up space, Windows 8 also enables you to compress folders without converting them into ZIP-compressed container files. Compression packs data together so it occupies less space. When you compress a folder, you can elect to compress all inherent files and subfolders as well as compress new files you later add to the folder.
Press "Windows-E" to open File Explorer and locate the folder you wish to compress.
Right-click the folder and select "Properties."
Click "Advanced" from the General tab.
Check "Compress Contents to Save Disk Space" and then "OK."
Click "Apply," select "Apply Changes to This Folder, Subfolders and Files" and click "OK" to compress the folder.
Click "OK" to close the Properties window.
Tips
You can also create a ZIP folder that lets you compress files in a single container file. This format is convenient for emailing or copying to a backup location. Right-click the folder, point to "Send to" and select "Compressed (Zipped) Folder." The new ZIP file is named after the selected folder and resides in its parent directory.
Warnings
Compression is only effective on files that are not already compressed, such as text documents. Files that already use compression, such as MPG, JPG or ZIP files, won't benefit much from additional compression.
References
Writer Bio
C. Taylor embarked on a professional writing career in 2009 and frequently writes about technology, science, business, finance, martial arts and the great outdoors. He writes for both online and offline publications, including the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Samsung, Radio Shack, Motley Fool, Chron, Synonym and more. He received a Master of Science degree in wildlife biology from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences at College of Charleston. He also holds minors in statistics, physics and visual arts.