FAQs - Compression & De-Duplication

Before starting:

ArchiverFS operates at the file system level, only using functionality that is built into the Windows kernel. Due to this it is fully compatible with every single standard Windows feature, including file compression and volume de-duplication.

Compressing your old files:

Windows File and Folder Compression has been available out of the box with Windows OSs for years. Compressing a file is as simple as clicking on a file, clicking on 'Properties', clicking on 'Advanced' and then ticking the 'Compress contents to save disk space' checkbox. Carrying out the same steps on a folder will compress the folder and all of it's contents.

Enabling the compression of archived files is just as easy, simply do this on the archive destination each archive job. The compression setting will then inherit down through the directory structure and it will be set on any new files that ArchiverFS migrates automatically.

What most people don't know is just how efficient Windows File and Folder compression is. When used against text based content, compression ratios of >80% are possible. What's more, as files are compressed in memory before they are written to disk enabling File and Folder Compression can actually save significantly on disk IO for only a small CPU processing overhead.

De-duplicating your old files:

ArchiverFS is 100% compatible with Windows built in de-duplication. It will happily work with both live file systems that have de-duplication enabled, as well as archive storage that is making use of the feature.

Enabling de-duplication on a volume is really easy, just enable the de-duplication feature with the Server Manager console. You'll find the feature in the 'File and Storage Services' section. Once enabled go to 'File and Storage Services' in the Server Manager console, find the volume that contains the files you wish to de-duplicate and right click on it before clicking on 'Configure Data De-duplication'.

Getting further help:

If you have any further questions then please don't hesitate to contact us via [email protected].

Microsoft have provided some excellent guides on setting up de-duplication. It's worth noting that you will need to be running Windows Server 2016 or later to use the feature.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/install-enable

How much space can you save:

The amount of storage space you can save will vary (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/overvieww), but considering it is basically a free feature that comes out of the box with the OS and that there are very few downsides to enabling it, there are very few organizations that won't benefit from setting it up.

Compatibility:

We have tested ArchiverFS extensively with compression and de-duplication, but as with any applications that interact with your file system you should ensure you test them yourself to make absolutely sure they will work as expected and don't conflict with any other third party applications you are using. To facilitate this ArchiverFS comes with a free \ trial license which enables you to test out all of the features without obligation.

You can grab your copy of ArchiverFS with a free license here.