[CentOS] file system defragmentation

[Tim Edwards]

Fong Vang wrote:
> I've read in many places that file systems on Linux do not suffer the
> same fragmentation problems of Windows systems.  No one has provided a
> clear explanation as to why fragmentation is not an issue for file
> systems such as ext2/3, reiserfs, xfs, etc.  Just curious.
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 From what I've read it seems to be because Linux file system code finds 
the next available contiguous block that the file will fit completely 
into on the disk. This is instead of just starting writing it to the 
first available free block wether its big enough to contiguously fit the 
file or not, like on FAT file systems.

Also I think that newer versions of NTFS are much more resistant to 
fragmentation than FAT filesystems - to the point where you have much 
less need to run defrag programs on them.

-- 
Tim Edwards