Need pros and cons of performing a GeoTIFF from ERDAS img conversion

Question

I have a 20GB ERDAS IMG file that I need to incorporate into my project.

It's data covers the entire USA, indicating the thickness of satellite sensed tree canopy.

What image format would provide me with far better compressibility, (20 GB is a lot of data!) but still allow me to access differing tiled sections of the data without trying to process or load the whole image.

Or would it be better to just section the file off myself and attach it in tiled pieces to a database myself?

The tiling aspect of ERDAS Imagine makes it sound attractive for searching and indexing, but the size is alarming.

Answer 1

20Gb is not that big, have a read through Paul Ramsey's GeoTiff Compression for Dummies and see if that answers your question.