Which Way File Away?

Given the current size, read/write cycles, reliability and cost of standard computer hard drives I think this point is rather academic.

For example we store many Excel spreadsheets (more than 100) containing exactly the same database making the spreadsheet 16Mb or more when the spreadsheet could be closer to 500kB if the database was simply linked and not imbedded and duplicated. After a small study it was decided that due to the cost of (server) hard drive space it was cheaper to not bother making the change.

I also believe that the later versions of Windows require greatly reduced de-frag over time (if ever), this has certainly been the case when I personally compare Win98 to Vista.

Why?

Why indeed? Are you trying to make a backup or off-line copy of CR4 perhaps (even this still makes no sense).

No, I won't deny that the point is somewhat academic; maybe it's just that my interest is, in part, academic as well. Perhaps I could have made the motivation, rather, more clear. Occasionally, I prepare posts off line, especially ones that are of of necessity lengthy, or in reply all at once to numerous posts using a copy of a and entire portion of a forum page. I typically store these (lets call them) draft documents . . . until posting is successful; but also sometimes forget to delete them or intentionally leave them filed, against the possibility of needing to refer to them later. Today, noticing how quite a few had accumulated, and intent on clearing some files prior to a de-frag exercise, it occurred to me that a listing in my CR4 folder of more or less empty files, save the space needed for applicable hyperlinks to the corresponding site page (and to saved pics uploaded to the site) could serve to remind (like tabs in a filing cabinet) using much less cumulative disc space. The question of whether to open a like file for the hyperlink or simply edit the existing file to "clear" all data but the hyperlink(s) was predicated on curiosity as to which procedure would ultimately occupy the least or, conversely, return the most, disc space for future use. And which filling/de-filing approach would best facilitate subsequent de-frags in order to minimize unrecoverable frags and maximize un-fragmented sectors.

I posted as a discussion - I think it was - in anticipation of, perhaps, numerous points of view. Maybe it's another Q like the one about whether to run idle or shut down to maximize computer hardware reliabilty and life cycle.

I prepare posts off line, especially ones that are of of necessity lengthy, or in reply all at once to numerous posts using a copy of a and entire portion of a forum page. I typically store these (lets call them) draft documents . . . until posting is successful; but also sometimes forget to delete them or intentionally leave them filed, against the possibility of needing to refer to them later.

I do exactly the same, both for CR4 and for business emailing. Just do what I do and copy the text you are preparing from CR4 to a Notepad text document located on your desktop. Use the same text document for storing all your text backups, after about 300 pages of stored text mine is only about 500kB large. You may lose some of your more advanced formatting but the document is smaller than if you saved as a Word document.

Works really well for me.

If you are worried about previous CR4 threads you have participated in then just use the 'subscribe to discussion' which links the thread to your subscribed discussions list for easy access in future. No point in using your system for storage when it can be done on the CR4 servers.

Raw ASCII files (i.e., Notepad format) are going to use a lot less disc space- but there is a limit to how much savings this can provide. Every file is going to use a block of storage- if you have 20 bytes of data (i.e., an ASCII representation of a link that you can cut and paste into your browser), it is still going to take a full block (the size of which is determined by how the disk is set up). The rest of the block is lost.

For saving an entire post, Notepad would be the most efficient. For saving just links, you might consider a single file to which to append each new entry- or, better yet, maybe set up a searchable data base (i.e., Access or MySQL), where you could save not only the link, but other searchable items like key words, author's name, date, etc...

Not being quite sure why you want to do this for CR4 pages and threads;

When I have a need to store bulk copy, I c/p, or d/d it into mail, send it to myself and it stores on the zillion bytes Gmail allocates me - complete with links, attachments and images.

I've also found this handy when a drive dies.

For maximum conservation of HDD space, store them on someone else's server

1) send them to yourself as emails, using a web based email service like Hotmail Or Gmail where they can sit in a folder or your inbox 2) save the finished posts as bookmarks & save/backup occasionally as csv files 3) save as bookmarks using a web based service like a google account, which lets you access them from any computer that's connected to the interweb 4) replace your spinning disc HDD with a solid state one