contiguous allocation of the disk
One way to use contiguous allocation of the disk and not suffer from holes is to compact the disk every time a file is removed. Since all files are contiguous, copying a file requires a seek and a rotational delay to read the file , followed by the transfer at full speed. Writing the file back requires the same work. Assuming a seek time of 5 msec , a rotational delay of 4 msec , a transfer rate of 8MB/sec and an average file size of 8KB, how long does it take to read a file into main memory then write it back to the disk at a new location? Using these numbers , how long would it take to compact a 8GB disk? Would that be a good idea?
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ASKED:
October 5, 2007 8:11 AM
UPDATED:
February 1, 2012 8:38 AM
Answer Wiki:
It is not recommended to compact the disk every time you remove a file, as a small number of holes does not matter much in read/write operation, it is only recommended on a periodic basis depending on how frequently you remove file from your disk. All speeds being taken into consideration, it is worth doing the operation as if you compare the overall time taken to defrag/compact your disk viz a viz the speed enhancement you get in return for your next cycle of operations is still worth.
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I believe that it is not advisable to compact the disk every time a file is removed. This is because this would possibly affect the efficiency of the disk and could cause hardware failure. It would be better if you perform the compacting or defragmenting of files at once in every predefined time.
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a seek time of 5m/sec , a rotaitnal delay of 4msec a transfer rate of 8mb/sec, and an average file size of 8kb , how long does it take to read a file into main memory the write it back to the disk at a new lociton? using these numbers, how long would it take to compact half of a 16-gb disk?