Is it safe to compress game files?

[Guest]

So I have a 1TB external HDD that I use for storing Steam games that I don't play, that way I don't have to deal with downloading them over my internet. TO save some space, I was thinking of compressing these game files that are on my 1TB HDD. I know that compressed files can't be used, so I would decompress them before moving them over to my computer. Would the games still run fine?

 

[abhishekmpelite]

of course why not

 

[Vynavill]

Depending on the file type and compression method, some files may rarely break. Moreover, for all you know, they might be compressed with a proprietary format already, with decompression being handled on the fly at runtime (which is what mostly happens anyway)

It'll work 99% of times, but there's always that 1% chance of failure you can't ignore. You could end up having to not only decompress the game before playing, but also having to check it and repair it.