UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi,
I have a file which is around 193 gb in size. This file has tonnes of spaces and I need to sanitize it.
I tried to use awk script to split this file but it gave me an error like line to long...
As of now I am using a sed command to search replace the spaces; however its too slow for such a big file.

Is there a better way to remove spaces from a file?

Another constraint that I have is I should not be touching the first two columns in the file even if they have spaces or not spaces.

Sed Command that I have used to get the job fast and also to ensure my first two colums are not touched :

sed 's/ *//g' bigfile > outfile

First Line from big file:----
; 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ;/; ;111111111111338; ; ; ;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/
;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/; ; ; ; ; ;
;/;00; ;I; ; ;2
0012;91; ; ;ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ; ;ONE ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ;2430 ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ;28 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ST ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ;US;ENGLISH ;N
SW ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ;
; ;I; ; ;99991231;BAD ;11111111;X;G ; ;11111111; ;
;/;/; ;
;/;/;/;/; ;/; ;/;
;/;/;/;/;/; ;/; ; ; ; ; ; ;/;
;/;/; ; ; ; ; ;/;/; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ;/;/; ; ; ; ;/;/;/;/;/;/; ; ;786643219987879875756; ; ; ;0009000789y969y7;200
10821; ; ;87147146 ;35042346 ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;/;I; ;US;02 65578109 ; ; ;
; ;20090731 ;99991231 ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;XXDEFAULT ;20010821;19990716; ;
; ;/; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;/;/; ; ;/; ;/;/;/;/;/
;/;/;/;/;/;/;/;/; ; ; ;/; ; ; ; ;

The fastest way would be to write a small C utility.

You've got the fastest way already, my friend. You're not going to be able to write anything yourself that's faster than sed.

But why wait till the file is already generated to do it? Why not pass it through sed as it's being created?