Re: Defragging a directory?

[johnlb@primenet.com (John Bowling)]

The reason why the DOS copied disk has some fragmentation is that
subdirectories are created as one block when the first file is placed in
them, and a new block added to the subdirectory when the first one is
full, thus making the subdirectories fragmented.  A DOS copy *may* be less
fragmented on subdirectories than the origional.  It could also be more
fragmented.  It does assure that the files themselves are not fragmented.

And, even though it's hard to measure, there is some time taken to access
the fragmented blocks of a directory.

The reason for the additional free blocks is that it doesn't create
those subdirectory blocks that are no longer needed, but cannot be removed
from a directory.  If there were a utility that would truncate a directory
and free up the unused blocks [it would have to place a no-more-entries
file header in the last location of a used directory block, rather than a
go-to-this-block-to-continue header] this could be eliminated.

John
--
--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--
- John Bowling          -- Shouldn't you be commuting by bicycle?
- johnlb@primenet.com   -- No, that's not a valid excuse!
--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--