Thread: Fragmentation an issue for μSD filesystems?
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Old 08-30-2013, 05:04 PM   #3
DNSB
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Vancouver
Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffR View Post
Does anyone know whether fragmentation could be a performance issue for the Kobo filesystems?

The device's internal filesystem is EXT format which is supposed to be highly resistant, if not completely immune, to fragmentation effects.

But the user filesystem where the main database, book and image files are stored is FAT format which can suffer badly from fragmentation problems, especially as it starts to fill up.

If the FAT filesystem does suffer from fragmentation then perhaps having a larger μSD card that always stays at least half empty might help.
Fragmentation is mostly an issue for hard drives with the requirement to move the heads when seeking between fragments. For a solid state memory, the effect of fragmentation is much smaller.

When I was using my Glo with a replacement internal uSD card, I had about 1400 books on it. One co-worker was saying that he noticed his ereader getting slower as he added and removed files though the total number of files on the ereader (Sony, not sure of the model) stayed around the same. To see if I noticed any effects on my Glo, I connected it to the computer, copied all the files in the FAT32 partition to my hard drive, formatted the partition and copied the files back. After this, I could see no difference in the times to open an ebook, search in the library, etc.

Regards,
David
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