How to Decompress Data in Compressed NTFS Drives and Partitions in Windows 11

1. Go to This PC via Windows Start menu

2. Mark the disk/partition you would like to decompress by clicking on it once. In the case of this article we will perform this process on the C drive.

3. Right click on the C drive and wait for a side menu to appear.

4. In that menu, look for the Properties word and click on it. Wait for the Properties window to appear

5. In the properties window, in the bottom part, look for the Compress the drive to save disk space sentence. It should be tagged with a blue V.

6. Uncheck the blue V by clicking on it once.

7. Once it is untagged you will see an empty box next to the sentence. That means it was untagged.

8. Click on the Apply button in the bottom part of the window

9. Once Apply is clicked, another, smaller pop-up window will appear.

10. Make sure that Apply changes to drive C:\, subfolders and files is marked in order to get the full effect of the decompression.

11. Click the OK button

12. In most cases, Windows Security will pop up a prompt window for you to approve administrator access to the selected drive/partition, its subfolders and files. Click on the Continue button to allow that.

13. In most cases there will be an error(s) applying the new attributes to the drive, subfolders and files. Click on the Ignore All button.

14. Once the Ignore All button is clicked, the new attributes will begin to be applied and thus the decompression process begins. This process will be indicated by a new small window with a progress bar.

15. Once the process is completed the progress bar window will be closed.

16. Click the OK button to close the properties window.