System and method for reducing disk chatter from disk-based data storage systems

摘要

The invention involves storing data on a storage medium without fragmentation. A data conveyance system configures data for delivery to a data storage system and associates a storage instruction with the data. The storage instruction instructs the data storage system to store the data without fragmentation. The data conveyance system then conveys the data and the storage instruction to the data storage system. The data storage system receives the conveyance and a controller reads the storage instruction. The controller stores the data in contiguous storage locations on the storage medium in accordance with the storage instruction. If the storage medium is a disk, the data conveyance system may configure the data for delivery to the data storage system by generating a filesystem and combining the data and the filesystem to form a partition file. The data conveyance system then associates the storage instruction with the partition file and conveys the storage instruction and partition file to the data storage system. The data storage system controller formats the storage disk to include a new disk partition and stores the partition file in the new disk partition. Alternatively, the controller may first read the data storage disk to find contiguous storage locations which are empty, and store the partition file only if sufficient available storage locations are found. As a further alternative, the controller may first de-fragment the storage disk to increase the number of contiguous storage locations available for storage.