A disk compression utility overrides the standard operating system routines. When information needs to be read, the utility decompresses the information. When information needs to be stored to the hard disk, the utility compresses the information. On-the-fly disk compression is therefore also known as transparent, real-time or online disk compression. Unlike a file compression utility, which compresses only specified files-and which requires the user to designate the files to be compressed-an on-the-fly disk compression utility works automatically through resident software without the user needing to be aware of its existence. JSTOR ( April 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī disk compression software utility increases the amount of information that can be stored on a hard disk drive of given size.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
