When running dsik cleanup on win XP should I check the box to compress old files ? Right now I show 903,002k available to free up if I do compress them.
I don't use that option. If you need that space, then it is time to go out and get a bigger harddrive. You will save yourself a lot of headaches in the long run.
Suggest you leave it unchecked. If it's checked, Windows will uncompress and it will take a long time.
I wouldn't do that. You are at a place where you need more drive space. Actually, you've been there for some time looks/sounds like. You're just now getting this message?
I have plenty of space, 70 left out of 80 gig. The consensus seems to leave it unchecked so that is what I will do for now.
Bigger HD not necessarily needed. Shortly after a fresh OS install, I always see 600K-900k to compress (or is already compressed), and I'm only using about 10% of my HD capacity. Best thing to do is uncheck the box and ignore it from then on. (I saw a registry hack one time to remove that from the cleanup list. Microsoft should remove it by default.)