GIMP: Size on disk

Unzipped, the application folder comes out to 17.5MB, but size on disk is over 31.5 MB (The effective space the program takes because of the sector size; A 1kB file takes up 4kB of space when sector size is 4kB.) Is there any way to run the application from an archive, or leave at least most of those 1700+ files in an archive file on the USB drive so you don't have 80% wasted space? Even an uncompressed archive would save all that space and wouldn't drag performance too much.

This brings me to another question, albeit OT - is it easy to reformat a USB drive? As easy as a floppy disk?