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Real-time apparatus and method for minimizing disk fragmentation in a computer system

  • US 5,930,828 A
  • Filed: 03/26/1997
  • Issued: 07/27/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1997
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In a computer system comprising a processor, an address/data bus coupled to said processor;

  • a computer readable memory coupled to communicate with said processor, a method performed by said processor for defragmenting a random access storage device where information is stored in files, and where information regarding the location of the files is contained in a master file table stored in a master file zone, the method comprising the steps of;

    invoking a first process flow to select a fragmented file having a plurality of non-contiguous extents and moving each extent toward the front of the disk thereby tending to pack files near the beginning of the disk and creating free space toward the end of the disk, said first process flow further comprises the steps of;

    identifying a fragmented file having a plurality of non-contiguous extents;

    moving the file extents to a contiguous free space on the storage device that is closer to the beginning of the disk than the current file location of the first extent of the fragmented file;

    moving the file extents toward the end of the disk if contiguous free space is unavailable closer the beginning of the disk than the current file location of the first extent of the fragmented file so as to at least partially defragment the fragmented file, said step of moving the file extents toward the end of the disk occurring when the contiguous free space is no smaller than the square root of the total number of clusters in the fragmented file so as to at least partially defragment the fragmented file;

    invoking a second process flow to select fragmented and contiguous files and moving the files toward the beginning of the disk;

    repeating the first and second process flow so as to further minimize file fragmentation and pack contiguous files toward the beginning of the storage device;

    invoking a third process flow to move fragmented files and contiguous files from the master file table zone to free space; and

    invoking the second process flow to move files toward the beginning of the storage device.

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