Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my please to offer three full disk compressors up for the forum members as betas to enjoy. These are all 100% transparent tools, letting applications access your data as if they were completely uncompressed.
1. Stacker
Risk: Zero
Technology: Data Deduplication
Requirements: 64 bit Windows NT 6.2 or Windows NT 6.3 (Server Edition)
Download: www.zipmagic.co/stacker.zip (rename to 7zip before extraction - while I fix the server configuration)
License: Please license ZIPmagic at www.zipmagic.co if you find the tool useful. 100% free to try and keep for all forum members who provide beta feedback and suggestions; together with a license of ZIPmagic 12 which will contain the final binary.
Application: For all non-boot-disk compression. Provides the highest compression ratios. Does not require console access to run. Can be used to compress non-boot storage on (virtual/private) servers. Can run 100% online.
2. DriveSpace
Risk: Zero
Technology: NTFS Compression
Requirements: Any 32 bit or 64 bit Windows NT 5.1 or newer platform (starting with Service Pack 0); ZIPmagic must be installed from www.zipmagic.co (re-branding has not been completed yet for the site and download) for the licensing to work
Download: www.zipmagic.co/drivespace.zip (rename to 7zip before extraction - while I fix the server configuration)
License: DriveSpace is already tied in to the ZIPmagic licensing mechanism and will refuse to compress more than 1 GB on each run without a valid license. 100% free to try and keep for all forum members who provide beta feedback and suggestions; together with a free license of ZIPmagic 12 which will contain the final binary. Just hit me up for a free license today, if you wish to use the tool without limitations RE: 1 GB cap.
Application: For all full-disk compression requirements. Supports boot disks and regular disks. Does not require console access to run. Can be used to compress (virtual/private) servers as well, including boot storage. Can run 100% online. Provides the least compression rates of the tools in the suite; however is the most versatile in being able to run 100% online, on all Windows versions, and without any foreseeable limitations or side effects.
3. DoubleSpace
Risk: Moderate with Undo Disk; High without Undo Disk
Technology: WIMBoot, using both WIMGAPI (Windows Imaging API) and WIMLIB (by Eric Biggers).
Requirements: Windows 8.1 with Update 1. While DoubleSpace will support 32 bit Windows, currently I have uploaded only the 64 bit build. 32 bit build will be made available upon request on immediate notice. You will, however, need to build a Windows PE 5.1, together with the binaries provided in the link below (no trivial task). To assist with the automation of this component, please visit the thread at http://reboot.pro/to...fi-boot-issues/
Download: www.zipmagic.co/doublespace.zip (rename to 7zip before extraction - while I fix the server configuration)
License: 100% free to try and keep indefinitely in its current form. A free license for ZIPmagic 12 Server Edition when it is released, which will contain the final version of DoubleSpace. Since this tool comes with high risk, I especially appreciate any feedback that will be provided on it. You are willingly taking the risk of blowing up your computer, and I am grateful.
Application: For boot disks only. Provides very high compression ratios, second only to Stacker. The only major drawback is that console access is required to be able to run from Windows PE. As such, will not be usable on servers if you do not have console access.
Acknowledgements and Thanks:
Sinan Karaca of InstallAware Software for building the original precursors of ZIPmagic, and providing proto versions of DoubleSpace and Stacker.
Eric Biggers of the open source WIMLIB project for his excellent support of WIMLIB, and also of course, for building the excellent WIMLIB libraries.
Christopher Ryan of Tom's Hardware, for using the precursor of DriveSpace in an SSD review, and for his forgiveness with a big mistake of mine.
User Manual:
DriveSpace and Stacker are 100% intuitive. Just point and click, they are 1-click operation tools.
For DoubleSpace, first choose the drive to compress. Next, choose an undo disk. Your undo disk must be large enough to compress your WIM file. You can use any internal or external storage. The undo disk will not be required after processing. If you skip using an undo disk, you can still try the tool - in this case, files will be deleted immediately after being added to the WIM file. Note! This is inherently dangerous. If anything goes wrong with the WIM process, you will lose access to all files that were deleted during processing.
If you select the MaxSpeed compression rate, the WIMGAPI will be used. If you select the MaxSpace compression rate, or anything else in between, the WIMLIB API will be used. Note that there is currently an issue with the WIMLIB API which may effect your ability to use any compression grade above MaxSpeed. This will be fixed in future iterations, thanks to the support of Eric Biggers.
To access advanced options, double-click the tool icon in the tool window. Here, you will be able to manually select the WIM file path to backup from and restore to, whether to backup, restore, or do both; and whether to do a system restore. A system restore simply applies your selected WIM file in non-WIMBoot (regular) mode. You will be able to use the system restore mode to restore your original system (as long as you took the undo disk option) if anything went wrong during WIM application in WIMBoot mode. The delete-files-on-the-fly option will format your disk before applying your WIM when running with an undo disk. If you are not using an undo disk, this option will immediately delete files, as soon as they have been added to a target WIM.
Caution:
Due at least in part to issues I have been having with my development Surface Pro's as documented at the UEFI Boot topic above, sometimes when I have used DoubleSpace, I have had trouble WIMBoot'ing. As far as I can tell, these issues are localized to my strange Surface Pro hardware. However, I cannot guarantee that they are, therefore I have classified the risk involved in using DoubleSpace to Medium/High. I am very much interested in your feedback using DoubleSpace on your UEFI and BIOS hardware, and especially on your Surface Pro's. However, please be advised that you may be left with an unworkable system, if the issues I am experiencing are not localized to my Surface Pro's, and/or my UEFI environment. Please make sure you have a full system backup before experimenting with DoubleSpace.
Notes:
DriveSpace is the upgraded version of Drive Press. Enhancements:
- Completely eliminated pre-scan of disk. Full disk compression begins immediately.
- Automatic SSD detection (even on RAID arrays and VMs).
Edited by simonking, 26 June 2014 - 12:43 AM.