Disk block allocation optimization methodology with accommodation for file system cluster size greater than operating system memory page size

摘要

An apparatus is equipped with a caching function of a device driver, including a pre-fetch function that selective pre-fetches data stored in disk blocks to facilitate operation with a file system having file clusters with a cluster size greater than an underlying operating system's memory page size. The apparatus is further equipped with a disk block allocation optimization function to generate a new set of disk blocks to reallocate disk blocks for file system clusters accessed by a sequence of file accesses of interest to improve the overall access time for these file system clusters. The disk block allocation optimization function is further equipped to account for the selective pre-fetches and caching to be performed to accommodate said file system.