Nowadays, many users are thinking about how the process of compressing information is carried out in order to save free space on the hard drive, because it is one of the most effective means of using the usable space in any drive. Quite often, modern users who are faced with a lack of free space on the drive have to delete any data, trying to free up the necessary space in this way, while more advanced users most often use data compression to reduce its size.
However, many do not even know what the process of compressing information is called, not to mention what algorithms are used and what gives the application of each of them.
Is it worth it to compress the data?
Data compression is quite important today and is necessary for any user. Of course, in our time, almost everyone can purchase advanced data storage devices that provide for the possibility of using a sufficiently large amount of free space, as well as equipped with high-speed channels for transmitting information.
However, one must correctly understand that over time the volume of the data that needs to be transmitted also increases. And if literally ten years ago, the standard for a regular film was considered the volume of 700 MB, today films made in HD quality can have volumes equal to several tens of gigabytes, not to mention how much free space is occupied by high-quality pictures in Blu-ray format.
When is data compression necessary?
Of course, you should not expect that the information compression process will bring you much benefit, but there are a number of situations in which some methods of information compression are extremely useful and even necessary:
- Transfer of certain documents via e-mail. This is especially true in situations where you need to transfer information in large volumes using various mobile devices.
- Often the process of compressing information in order to reduce the space it occupies is used when publishing certain data on various sites when it is necessary to save traffic;
- Save space on your hard drive when it is not possible to replace or add new storage media. In particular, the most common situation is when there are certain restrictions in the available budget, but there is not enough free disk space.
Of course, in addition to the above, there are still a huge number of different situations in which it may be necessary to compress the information in order to reduce its volume, but these are by far the most common.
How can I compress the data?
Today there are a wide variety of methods for compressing information, but they are all divided into two main groups - compression with certain losses, as well as lossless compression.
Using the latter group of methods is relevant when data must be restored with extremely high accuracy, down to one bit. Such an approach is only relevant if a certain text document is compressed.
It should be noted that in some situations there is no need for the most accurate recovery of compressed data, therefore, it is possible to use such algorithms in which information on the disk is compressed with certain losses. The advantage of lossy compression is that this technology is much simpler to implement, and also provides the highest possible degree of archiving.
Lossy compression
Lossy information compression algorithms provide an order of magnitude better compression, while maintaining sufficient information quality. In most cases, the use of such algorithms is carried out to compress analog data, such as all kinds of images or sounds. In such situations, the unpacked files can differ quite a lot from the original information, but for the human eye or ear they are almost indistinguishable.
Lossless compression
Lossless information compression algorithms provide the most accurate data recovery, eliminating any loss of compressed files. However, one must correctly understand the fact that in this case, not so efficient file compression is provided.
Universal methods
Among other things, there is a certain number of universal methods by which an effective process of compressing information is carried out in order to reduce its place. In the general case, only three main technologies can be distinguished:
- Stream conversion. In this case, the description of the new incoming uncompressed information is carried out through the files that have already been processed, while no probabilities are calculated, and the characters are encoded based solely on those files that have already been processed.
- Statistical compression. This process of compressing information in order to reduce the space occupied by it on the disk is divided into two subcategories - adaptive and block methods. The adaptive option provides for calculating the probabilities for new files from information that has already been processed in the encoding process. In particular, various adaptive versions of the Shannon-Fano and Huffman algorithms should also be attributed to such methods. The block algorithm provides for a separate calculation of each block of information with subsequent addition to the most compressed block.
- Block conversion. The incoming information is distributed into several blocks, and subsequently a holistic transformation takes place. It should be noted that certain methods, especially those that are based on the permutation of several blocks, can ultimately lead to a significant reduction in the amount of compressible information. However, it must be correctly understood that after such processing, a significant improvement in the data structure ultimately occurs , as a result of which subsequent compression through other algorithms is much simpler and faster.
Copy Compression
One of the most important backup components is the device on which the information the user needs will be transferred. The more data you move, the more voluminous you will need to use. However, if you are going to carry out the data compression process, then in this case the problem of lack of free space is unlikely to remain relevant for you.
Why is this needed?
The ability to compress information during backup can significantly reduce the time it will take to copy the necessary files, and at the same time achieve effective saving of free space on the drive. In other words, when using compression, information will be copied much more compactly and quickly, and you can save your money and finances, which were necessary to purchase a larger storage device. In addition, by compressing information, you also reduce the time it takes to transport all the data to the server or copy it through the network.
Data compression for backup can be carried out in one or several files - in this case, everything will depend on what kind of program you use and what information you compress.
When choosing a utility, be sure to look at how much your chosen program can compress data. It depends on the type of information, as a result of which the compression efficiency of text documents can be more than 90%, while image compression will be effective by no more than 5%.