Should I compress my external hard drive?

[dennis96411]

I use my Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB external hard drive exclusively for backing up my stuff. I want to know whether to compress the drive or not.

Things to consider:
* I have a software installed that backups the data I chose everyday.
* I record gameplays using Fraps periodically.

 

[jitpublisher]

Basically, no I would not compress it unless it was full and I simply had no money to buy another drive, or any other option. Why are you thinking of doing that, are you running out of room?

 

[dennis96411]

Basically, no I would not compress it unless it was full and I simply had no money to buy another drive, or any other option. Why are you thinking of doing that, are you running out of room?

Well, I have about 100GB left, but I'm not too worried about that. Basically, I want the best performance out of it.

 

[jitpublisher]

Compressing it will slow it down considerably. If you are concerned about performance, don't compress it.

 

[Douglaserytin]

Why do you have to do that? As I know, the compressing process can be bad for drive performance. So, since it is your backup drive, you’d better never compress it.