Undo NTFS compression

mp5 · 16 Nov 2015

I have an 1TB external hard drive with no free space left, and contains only one visible file; Locker.flk - created by using Folder Lock. (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit)
I was just curious to see if the "Compress or Encrypt files" in "Advanced Attributes" would make any difference, so I ticked off the box to "Compress content to save disk space".
When I then clicked "Apply" I got an Windows error message saying "Disk full, not enough space to complete the task"
But when I go back to see attributes settings it now has the box ticked - indicating compression IS activated, despite the error message.
No matter what I do, I can't undo it. "Disk full, not enough space..."

The main problem is that when I try to access my locked files using Folder Lock, it says;
"The Locker seems to be compressed at the file-system level in Windows. Please remove the compression, and try again!

- Windows won't let me undo the compression (that never happened), and until this gets undone Folder Lock will keep my files locked...

3 weeks ago I lost the main drive I used to store i.e. ALL family photos. Now this happens to the backup of that drive. I'm starting to feel sick...

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

(Short version of post above - without the yada yada...)

How do I create a registry entry that disables NTFS compression on a drive?

torchwood · 20 Nov 2015

1TB is an awfull lot of data, how did you transfer the data to it???

sounds more like a virus to me.

Please download MalwareBytes and run on both your Comp and your external hard drive.

When you DL malwarebytes please uncheck the 30 day trial.
And enable the rootkit scan in the scan options.

In Folder Lock (not an MS prog) are there any option to dissable.

Roy

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

It's a ext. USB drive used as a backup for a few years. Folder Lock have created a "vault", that when closed are always the same size, and does not reflect actual amount of data on the disk.
(It's about 2-300GB free space inside)

It is clean, scanned with MalwareBytes. The drive has been used exclusively to store personal and family photo+video.

What did you mean disable...?
-You mean disable protection/ or un-locking the files with Folder Lock?
The problem is FL can't do anything until drive looses its compressed -status!

torchwood · 20 Nov 2015

All AntiVirus and a lot of other Security/Encription programmes have the facility to dissable/stop parts of the program, either totally or for a certain amount of time.
Allowing you to do anything you cant usually do, or run other AV's mostly

Open folder lock> select options> security??- dissable, see whats there.

Dont use it myself but the above are standard.

Roy

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

Only option is to uninstall program, but that does leave files the way they're now - hidden in the "vault", which is a .flkb -file.
So uninstalling is only an option if I were able to move files from there to another disk first!

torchwood · 20 Nov 2015

If your using FL7 then theres an awfull lot more options than that!!!

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

Yes, this is all the option!

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

And this is how it looks when I try to open my files, and where I'm stuck:

mp5 · 20 Nov 2015

I'm not too sturdy in English, so I add some Windows screenshots for better illustrating my problem:

Right click on file, select properties,
select show advanced file attributes,
deselects "Compress to save space"
Clicks OK..
..and then I get the system error message:

"An error occurred while setting file attributes. There is not enough disk space"

Undo NTFS compression

Undo NTFS compression

Creating a registry entry...

filled up

Dissable

Version 7