> A previous user of a computer with XP Home checked "Compress drive to save
> disk space" on a data drive. The drive is 300GB, and it has 275GB of
> compressed data. What happens if I uncheck the selection? Will the
> compressed files be expanded back to their normal size? How much space has
> to be available on the drive to make this happen? What happens if not
> enough space is available?

A home user with 275 GB stored? Chances are you have lots of
un-compressable files - avi's MP1,2,3 or 4 files? VOBs?

It is my belief that Windows won't modify the filesys unless
there's at least 15% free space - in your case 45 GB available.
(please report back if that is found to be not true)

Also please note that compressing NTFS drives makes almost
zero sense. FAT and FAT32 - yes, the large clusters screamed
for help, but 4K NTFS clusters?

Ed