Remember that computer salesman telling you, "Oh, don't worry, you'll never use up all the space on this baby's hard drive!" He seemed to be on the up and up. But, it didn't take too long before you found yourself looking at a message telling you that you are running low on disc space. What happened!?

Of course, you can go through the deepest darkest depths of your hard drive and try to clean up some of those heavy files. But, in a couple months you'll find yourself clearing space again. There's a better way, and it's called file compression.

Unless you're pretty handy with your computer, file compression might be a little mysterious. You know it does something or other funny with your files, but you're not quite sure what.

Basically, file compression makes your files smaller without losing any of the data they contain. You can compress files so that they won't take up so much room on your hard drive, and then when you need them, you can puff them back up again to their usable size. This also comes in handy when you are sending files through your e-mail.

Is it a magic trick?? How can that be done? Well, actually file compression does not make your files any smaller. What it really does is takes files apart and puts them back together again. File compression breaks your files down into bits of data, and file compression programs have an algorithm that it uses to put the files back together again. The algorithm allows the program to fill in the blanks and recreate your files whole.

There are different types of compression programs to choose from, depending on your personal tastes. Some compression programs are better suited for text data, while other programs are best for media files. They use different algorithms but all with the same outcome. Some programs decrease file size more than others, and some have special features that allow you to choose compression methods.

Probably one of the most well known file compression formats is PKZIP. The main reason why PKZIP is so popular is that it is a flexible program that is easy to use. It's designed with those of us who get easily confused by our computers especially in mind. Like most file compression software, you can get PKZIP for free on the software's website at pkware Another good program that is available for free is RAR. RAR has more special features, such as the ability to spread compressed files out in several locations.

Compressed files carry their own file extensions which require certain software to open them. For example, if you download a file that ends in .rar, this tells you that it's an RAR file, and you need the RAR program to decompress the file. PKZIP uses the .zip extension, which supports several other file compression programs such as Winzip.

You can use file compression to make more space on your computer, but where file compression really comes in handy is in downloading or sending files. Do you know how long it takes to download an entire uncompressed movie file? It takes a looong time, as well as computer space. File compression makes downloading quick and easy. It also allows you to attach an almost unlimited number of files to emails.

File compression is an important and convenient tool that you have at your fingertips. Once you get used to how it's done, you'll find yourself with lots of room on your computer.