Disk Cleanup.. basic question..

[lucidtransition]

Just wondering, why is it when you do a disk cleanup, it has to Compress old files? I mean it takes forever to compress the ****, why not just delete everything, and be done with it.. is compression really necessary to delete files? it takes FOREVER this way .. im doing it now and it says
Cleaning: compress old files

WHY?! doing this takes so long. it moved 2 progress bars in the last hour and a half ..

 

[scherzo]

depending on how sensitive you data is, deleting them actually doesn't delete them, even formating a drive you can still recover files.

however - compressing files is an option you can select/deselect after the intial 'disk compression' you see when you select disk cleanup from system tools.