June 30th, 2009 | 
Author: Compact.exe is a commanding line tool of NTFS (New Technology File System) file system in Microsoft Windows operating system. As the name of this suggests, it enables the system administrators to compress or compact the files on NTFS file system partition or entire partition. You can use a number of different parameters with this command to change or view the compression state of NTFS partitions and files. Although, it is useful in a number of cases, but sometimes the compression may make your hard drive partitions inaccessible and cause partition loss. In such situations, you need to use Partition Recovery solution to recover lost partitions and stored data.
With the help of various parameters with Compact.exe tool, you can compress and uncompress the files, compress files even after experiencing errors, view hidden files and view system characteristics of files. This tool does not allow compressing NTFS file system partitions, if their allocation unit size is more than 4 KB. If you attempt to compress such hard drive partitions, you might come across the below given error message:
“The file system does not support compression”
The allocation unit size is described when you format NTFS partition so that Microsoft Windows can use it as smallest amount of disk space for allocating to a file. However, if you do not specify the cluster size, Windows takes default value. If you define larger value and then attempt to compact it further, it results into specified error message. In such cases, continuous attempts to compress the partition might make the partition inaccessible and require Partition Recovery to be fixed.
In some situations, if the allocation size unit causes this problem, you may need to format the hard drive. Formatting might allow you to change the size of allocation size unit, but it also has a downside. It removes all of the hard drive partitions and cause critical partition loss situations.
At this point, you need to go for Partition Recovery Software. These software use efficient scanning mechanisms to methodically scan the damaged hard drive and retrieve all of the missing partitions. With self-descriptive and graphical user interface, these software are easy to use and do not demand sound and prior technical skills. The Partition Recovery Software does not alter the original structure of drive and your data as they have read only conduct.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most comprehensive and robust software that works in most of the partition loss cases. It recovers lost, missing or inaccessible FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system partitions. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 RC1, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000.
Author explains the data loss condition by the use commpact.exe tool for file system and suggested to use partition recovery software for lost partition recovery.
Article Source: Windows Partition Loss Due to Errors in Compact.exe Tool
