In your context “compressing” has a different meaning to the compression offered by PowerArchiver.
Most popular “media formats” are already compressed and will not give you any saving of disk space if you try to Zip or 7-zip etc them.
@effigy233:
… I ripped dvds to folders and they have VOB files …
As spwolf answered, you can save space by ripping to a different format.
For more details/ideas refer:
http://www.dvdripguides.com/
http://www.doom9.org/
Note: mpeg2 / mpeg4 are “compressed” formats.
@effigy233:
…I copied all my music to my computer…
Again depends on the file type/format.
Maybe converting from e.g. .wav to .wma or .mp3 would reduce filesize without a noticible loss of quality.
Note: wma / mp3 are “compressed” formats.
@effigy233:
…i have stored … pictures …
Again depends on the file type/format.
If your pictures are “bit mapped” ( .bmp) then converting to .jpg or .png will reduce the filesize without a noticible loss of quality.
Note: .jpg / .png are “compressed” formats.
When your dvds, pictures, music is converted into one of the compressed formats, further attempts to compress the files using e.g. Zip or 7z could actually INCREASE the amount of disk space required.
The only way to reduce disk space further would be to collect them into a single file or groups of files (improving the actual block size used on the hard disk); for this you could try TAR format - with NO compression.
@effigy233:
… i have stored programs …
Do you mean the program installation (setup) files or the actual folder(s) from e.g. “Program Files” folder.
Most setup files are already compressed and so the above warnings apply again.
Of course, after converting/compressing, to then view/play your files, you will need sufficient free disk space to allow the extraction from the archive first.