[Sussex] Why Linux doesn't need defrag

[Nic James Ferrier]

Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 05:29:01AM -0600, linux at oneandoneis2.org wrote:
>> http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2006/08/17/why_doesn_t_linux_need_defragmenting
>> 
>> I *think* I got the basic details right, but I'm not absolutely sure,  
>> so any feedback would be appreciated.
>> 
>
> I don't agree with:-
>
> "Linux pays attention to the hard drive's actual geometry, and would not
> split this file so badly."
>
> I was under the impression that Linux has no clue about the real physical
> geometry of the disk because that's abstracted by the circuitry on the
> drive/controller. As far as Linux is concerned it's a large number of
> sectors, it has no clue *really* how they're arranged.

That's right. I don't think any OS has access to this information
anymore.

When I was about 8 my father actually bothered to repair a head
crashed hard drive (this was 1978). These days even the hard drisc
driver doesn't know how many platters there are.


-- 
Nic Ferrier
http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk   for all your tapsell ferrier needs