Performance-predicated automatic defragmentation of hard disks
Contents
1. In all cases we were able to defrag beyond what Diskeeper could do Also he added Dis keeper is significantly more expensive In fact he couldn t find any other add ons that for the same money could match Defrag Commander s performance 0050 Rather than scrapping Diskeeper Beaudry decided to use Defrag Commander as a complementary solution and for upgrades The initial investment of 1 100 gave him central management capabilities for over 150 desktops 0051 Beaudry installed Defrag Commander on a Win dows 2000 server in November 2001 It s running so smoothly I can practically forget about it he said From an IT management and TCO perspective it doesn t get any better than this 0052 The Nature of Digital Audio Files 0053 Extraction or RIPPING of audio from a CD is explained in the article About Digital Audio Extraction by Bob Starrett a on the world side web circa 2002 aT lt http www cdpage com gt 0054 Accurately copying a Red Book audio track from an audio compact disc to hard disk or another CD is a continuing challenge but it has recently become less diffi cult due to advances in hardware and software technology Jul 29 2004 0055 Audio tracks are not like regular computer data files they are made up made up of data that is meant to stream and this stream contains more than music The stream itself is not simple it is interleaved meaning that portio2. ranging from lack of disk space to the power being off for long periods to software errors 0045 Unfortunately MHIS legacy defrag tool Dis keeper from Burbank California based Executive Soft ware reguires that each disk be managed individually Beaudry couldn t keep tabs on laptops that remained out of the main office for weeks at a time Users would return after long absences and complain that their laptops were running slowly Often the cause was disk fragmentation 0046 With this problem in mind Beaudry was drawn to an ad for Defrag Commander The ad said the tool could be managed from one computer Also Defrag Commander created by Austin Tex based Winternals Software doesn t require manual installations on desktops 0047 Intrigued Beaudry ordered a demo copy and ran a test on a Windows 2000 based server He found that Defrag Commander defragged quickly in a single pass Also it offered daily reports detailing activities on each computer on the defrag schedule 0048 With Defrag Commander defrags run on a sched ule set the IT manager If someone s machine isn t on when the defrag is scheduled the defrag happens automatically when they power up again Beaudry said Less user support is needed because users aren t involved in the process In fact they don t necessarily even need to know about it 0049 We ran trials on machines that had Diskeeper installed said Beaudry
3. How do you know which ones are good The Adaptec CD R dis cussion list is a good place to find out the opinions of many other CD R users the question has been discussed exten sively in the list in the past and is frequently re discussed as new models are released To see what s been said most recently have a look at the list archives at http listserv a daptec com You can also join the list yourself and ask see http www cdrcentral com community policies html for more information 0065 To understand why audio ripping can be so unpre dictable we need to look at the structure and function of audio discs as opposed to data discs Copying files from a data disc to hard disk is easy and reliable This is not always the case with audio tracks An audio Red Book disc is divided into three distinct areas the Lead In the Program Area and the Lead Out The location or address of each audio track on a disc is stored in the disc s Table of Contents TOC in the Lead In area of the disc 0066 The TOC of an audio disc much like a book s is a good source for finding out what is where on the disc but it cannot always lead you to the right place in the book Let s say we have a chapter in a book that is entitled How to Record an Audio CD If we want to learn about ripping the TOC will tell us that this chapter begins on page 123 but it does not tell us where within the chapter the part about ripping begins The Table of
4. accumulation of music tracks has become moribund due to fragmentation problems with the hard drive of the recorder player 0077 2 Eliminating Hard Disk Drive Fragmentation in the First Instance 0078 The second aspect of the present invention the strategy for reducing the fragmentation of records written Jul 29 2004 upon magnetic hard disk drives in the first place is now first discussed because if disk fragmentation can be avoided or minimized in the first place then the importance of defragmentation automatic or not is diminished However the elegance sophistication and innovation in both recog nizing any need for defragmentation and in automatically performing defragmentation as is accorded by first aspect of the present invention will be seen to be complimentary of use with this second aspect of the present invention In fact and as will be explained both aspects have their own merit and applicability 0079 Fragmentation avoidance in accordance with the present invention is embodied in a special method of man aging the digital recording of files on the hard disk drives of most typically generally portable digital recording and playback devices most commonly as are used for digital music These devices most typically have only modest amounts of 1a high speed semiconductor memory if not also only modest 2a instruction set architectures and or 3a logical performance capabilities relative to the 1b
5. memory capacities 2b instruction sets and or 3b com putational performance of computers The special method is based on the recognition of several differences between on the one hand 1 computers and their typical uses and on the other hand 2 digital music recorder playback devices and their typical uses 0080 First 1 computers often retrieve a program from a hard disk drive to semiconductor memory and commence to use it for a time that is relatively long with but modest further disk references relative to 2 a digital music player which is essentially but a reading writing and interpretation unit for encoded records digitally written upon the hard disk drive 0081 Second any 1 buffer to the hard disk drive itself plus 2 such buffer to the hard disk drive that is innately accorded by the relatively high speed semiconductor memory of a computer plus to a much lesser importance 3 a possible cache memory of even higher speed to the computer microprocessor itself all serve to make that a computer is more unlikely to be negatively impacted by modest levels of hard disk fragmentation than is a simple recorder player of digital music or the like 0082 Ofcourse one way to attack the disk fragmentation problem within a digital recorder player is to put a commo dious semiconductor memory buffer within the recorder player in order to substantially eliminate f not the frequent and power consuming seeks by t
6. method in accordance with the present invention will sug gest themselves to a practitioner of the digital computer programming arts 0156 For example delays to fragmentation could be monitored by hardware watchdogs so as to trigger soft ware processes of the preferred types taught herein 0157 In accordance with these and other possible varia tions and adaptations of the present invention the scope of the invention should be determined in accordance with the following claims only and not solely in accordance with that embodiment within which the invention has been taught Jul 29 2004 What is claimed is 1 A method of managing the recording of data upon a hard disk drive comprising writing any and all new files onto the hard disk drive starting at a location which is then at the time of the writing of each file at the beginning of a commodious open and terminal area of the hard disk called the free space of the hard disk one file following the next in sequence as and when each file is written until the free space of the disk becoming filled to a predetermined extent simplified defragmenting ensues the simplified defrag menting simply moving each file upon the hard disk towards the beginning of the hard disk and into tight packed proximity with a neighboring earlier file as is possible the simplified defragmenting making that ear lier unerased unmodified recorded files upon the hard disk become
7. preferably of size 4M words of 16 bits each NOTE this buffer memory should not be confused with the buffer Memory 32 Decoded digital data repre senting an audio wave form from the MP3 DSP goes to audio digital to analog converter DAC 15 preferably type WM8725 or AK4352 and also to MP3 Encoder Decoder 34 which is a new chip type YMPC 3001 from Yountel of Korea Jul 29 2004 0118 Meanwhile an audio signal from the DAC 15 goes to audio companding de companding circuit Audio CODEC 33 preferably type UDA1342TS from Philips 0119 The elements added to this base structure of a CD ROM reader in order to realize the combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player are now introduced in the context of an exemplary function that at various times and under various user operator control is performed by these element One function and operational mode of the combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player is called play and record from analog In this operational mode and for this function an audio signal from the DAC 15 received in Audio CODEC 33 is directly routed to Amplifier 40 of nominal 12 db gain and then to Headphone Amp 17 and then for play to any of i Headphone 18a and or ii Speaker 18c1 and or iii through Radio Transmitter 1841 and antenna 18d2 via a low power radio signal preferably FM to a proximate radio not shown for reception and play through the sound output system of the radio Meanwhile this audio sign
8. Contents on an audio CD tells the CD ROM drive approximately where a song begins on the disc but unlike a data CD ROM it doesn t tell the drive exactly where it starts 0067 Since audio discs were designed to be played sequentially in real time it was not thought necessary to have information on the disc that pinpointed the exact location of the beginning of a track it was good enough to get close to the location To have that extra data with an exact starting address for every track would have taken up space on the disc that could otherwise be used for music 0068 The sectors on a data CD on the other hand has only 2 048 bytes of user data in each 2 352 byte CD ROM Jul 29 2004 sector These sectors can be accessed exactly because the header information the remaining 304 bytes in each sector holds the precise address of the data block 0069 An audio block also contains 2 352 bytes but all of these bytes are used for audio There is no header so there is no information within the block to allow for the exact positioning of a drive s read head over a particular block To locate a specific audio block a CD drive must take advan tage of the Q subcode but this allows head positioning only to within 1 second of the true block address When seeking an audio block a CD ROM drive only moves the read head to a position close to the requested block and then it compares the Q subcode to the block address being sought The
9. and or most commonly and in full accordance with that particular preferred method that is flow charted in FIG 2 3 running to the end of a que of disk space because all files were contiguously written at the then existing end of the when first recorded and must now be compacted This compaction is of course possible only when some recorded files have since been deleted 0136 The sequence of defragmentation in blocks 208 210 212 214 and 216 is entered Power levels are first checked in block 208 to ensure defragmentation can be US 2004 0148476 Al accomplished without power loss An audible or visual alert or both may optionally be sent to the user indicating that automatic defragmentation is required and will start in a variable preset amount of time unless disabled by the user Upon automatic start up or user manual initiation of defrag mentation all operational functions of the non computer hard disk drive device will normally be locked out and disabled for the duration of the defragmentation operation 0137 The recorded sectors of the hard disk drive are analyzed by the auto defragmentation program in blocks 210 and 212 This well know function is for the instance of a portable digital device commonly implemented in firm ware Defragmentation of the hard disk drive then occurs in blocks 214 and 216 The file allocation tables FATs and file structures while realigning the segments and clusters to eliminate fra
10. could be the slogan for many businesses IT shops said With that attitude he would have simply zipped past an ad for a disk defragmentation tool that could improve his system s per formance After all his existing defrag tool wasn t broken 0042 It s easy to get complacent stick with the vendor you know and not keep your eyes and ears open said Beaudry Often this approach results in so so performance and higher total cost of ownership in systems worth tens of thousands of dollars Making poor use of large system investments is not acceptable for Beaudry If I see a way to get a percentage point improvement in my system I m going to go for it he said 0043 The fact that MHIS has many remote workers poses a tough management problem for an efficiency fo cused IT manager The Winnipeg Manitoba Canada based MHIS creates financial clinical client and dietary Informa tion software for the health care industry Working as US 2004 0148476 Al salespeople or implementation specialists MHIS employees travel with laptops running Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 and Microsoft s SQL Server database Disk fragmentation is a common occurrence in Windows based computers As fragmented files pile up in one system performance deteriorates 0044 Unless you can centrally manage PCs you don t know if they re being defragged regularly said Beaudry Defragging may not be taking place for various reasons
11. digital files normally digital music 0133 In decision box 202 the guestion is asked as to whether or not the recorder player is idle meaning devoid of playing or recording or converting tasks The most common answer to this guestion is no making entrance into block 206 to process any normal recorder player operations is made via path 203 At the conclusion of each such operation the decision block 202 is re entered via path 205 0134 When in decision block 202 the guestion as to whether or not the recorder player is idle is answered yes then another second decision block 204 is entered via path 207 If the guestion does the hard disk drive HDD need defragmentation asked in this block is answered no then block 206 is entered as before 0135 If however the HDD is determined in decision block 204 to need defragmentation then a linear path through blocks 208 210 212 214 and 216 is entered The decision may be so answered yes based on any one or ones of criteria including 1 seeks repositionings of the disk read head in the retrieval of a single record as such record may further be qualified by length or by time which record is most commonly a single digital musical work having exceeded a certain threshold 2 any breaks having exceeding a certain threshold time in the flow of data most typically representing audio data in a previous read of a record normally a song track
12. proceed Upon automatic start up or user manual initiation of defragmentation all operational functions of the non computer hard disk drive device will normally be locked out and disabled for the duration of the defragmentation operation Sometimes how ever certain or all of the operational functions of the device are non conflicting with certain normal defragmentation processes and may be permitted to transpire in even time with the defragmentation In this case the automatic defrag mentation or more properly the file defragmentation por tion thereof is said to transpire transparently in the back ground The permitted operational functions always exclude powering off or shutting down the hard disk drive 0093 As is substantially conventional in a hard disk drive file defragmentation process the hard disk drive is first analyzed by the auto defragmentation program which is for the instance of a portable digital device commonly imple mented in firmware Defragmentation of the hard disk drive then occurs protecting the file allocation tables FATs and file structures while realigning the segments and clusters to eliminate fragmentation of the files 0094 After completion of the auto defrag function a reanalysis of the hard disk drive preferably occurs automati cally Status is preferably displayed to the user as either complete or finished or the like and preferably the newly adjusted free spa
13. recognizing during normal use of the hard disk drive and without any manual or any scheduled invocation of any fragmentation assessment routine when files of a hard disk drive are undesirably fragmented and respon sively to the recognizing defragmenting the files of the hard disk drive until they are at least temporarily no longer recognized as unde sirably fragmented 6 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 5 wherein the recognizing comprises US 2004 0148476 Al directly reading the files stored upon the hard drive and assessing the extent of their fragmentation 7 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 6 wherein the assessing of the extent of the fragmentation of files is relative to a level preset for the hard disk drive upon manufacture of any device in which the hard disk drive is contained 8 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 6 wherein the assessing of the extent of the fragmentation of files is relative to a level set for the hard disk drive by a user of a device in which the hard disk drive is contained 9 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 5 wherein the recognizing comprises indirectly assessing read write performance of the hard drive so as to impute the fragmentation condition of the files 10 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 5
14. the defragmenta tion 0034 Broken hard disks e g hard disks containing bad sectors shouldn t be defragmented So check your disks for errors before defragmenting 0035 Alperstadt finds the most critical aspect in defrag menting a server is the availability of the server The defragmenter should not use all the resources for the defrag mentation It should leave enough free memory and proces sor time so the server can fulfill its main tasks while being defragmented If the server is not defragmented periodically Jul 29 2004 it can be a time consuming process because there are large amounts of files being stored on them 0036 Running defragmentation software like running any other software on a computer costs performance time So if it is desired to defragment hard disks leaving the computer alone for a while maybe a long while and letting the defragger do its job is recommended Some defrag tools address this issue They have an integrated technology that listens to the system and stops the defragmentation if the user works with the machine If the user pauses the defrag process continues automatically 0037 Defragmentation usually doesn t conflict with other applications If the defragger finds a file locked by another application this file will not be touched However newer defraggers write these files to a database and defrag ment them during the next boot process 0038 If you compare a file serv
15. the fragments or discontinuous parts of each file stored on a computer hard disk so that the small empty storage spaces adjacent between fragments are substantially eliminated effectively continuously tight packing a first region of the disk creating enlarged remaining storage space in a second region of the disk and possibly making file access faster 0008 Defragmentation is the process of i locating the noncontiguous fragments of data into which a computer file may be divided as it is stored on a hard disk and ii rearranging the fragments and restoring them into fewer fragments or into a whole file Additionally successive files and or file segments are insofar as is possible iii tight packed upon the surface of this disk without intervening regions in which no useful information is recorded Defrag mentation generally reduces data access time permitting magnetic disk storage to be used more efficiently in time as well as in volume Some operating systems automatically defragment storage periodically others require that the user occasionally use a special utility for this purpose 0009 The Windows 98 product of Microsoft Inc Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft comes with a built in defragmenter as a system tool that the user can run The Windows NT product of Microsoft did not come with a defragmenter because its file system NTFS was designed to minimize fragmentation however NT users of
16. tightly packed together while to such extent as the tight packing of files opens up space upon the disk the free space of the disk is reconstituted in whole or in part wherein if a specified file in the tight packed area of the disk is erased or modified then neither it nor any other and newly written file are then written into the hard disk space previously occupied by the specified file which space is simply cleared but any modified ver sion of this file will instead be written into the free space area of the hard disk wherein fragmentation of records is substantially avoided at the cost of having to perform simplified defragment ing where files not tightly packed are moved into tight packed positions upon and from the beginning of the disk drive 2 The method according to claim 1 that when the free space of the disk has become filled to the predetermined extent further comprises alerting a user of the hard disk drive that the simplified defragmenting will ensue 3 The method according to claim 2 that when the free space of the disk has become filled to the predetermined extent and the user alerted further comprises permitting the user to postpone the simplified defrag menting 4 The method according to claim 1 wherein recording of new files upon the hard disk drive is prohibited during duration of the simplified defrag menting 5 An automatic defragmentation method for a hard disk drive comprising
17. 004 to the Audio CODEC 33 and associated operational modes are provided to digitalize to MP3 format and record audio information both from a Radio 42a using an antenna 42b and a Microphone 43 The Keyboard Keypad Processor 35 manages the power selection and control and the operator interface via the Keypad 37 and the Dot Matrix Display Module 36 An output port for the audio signal is provided through plug jack Line Out 39 0130 2 A First Automatic Defragmentation Method 0131 A flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a first automatic defragmentation method in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG 2 In this method both the files and free space of the disk are fragmented and the defragmentation procedure performed serves to defragment both Namely the files are made to be contiguous upon the disk one file following another normally commencing at the beginning of the disk while the free space remaining ex of the files upon the disk is located as one contiguous area normally at the end of the disk 0132 In the preferred first method shown in the flow chart of FIG 2 the controller i e control logics of that digital recorder player which incorporates as one of its storage media a hard disk is in a master idle control loop 201 which condition is always assumed when the recorder player is on i e energized and is not presently tasked to play or to record or to convert in format
18. D by use of a large data buffer 2b eliminating any reference to the HDD for instructions and 2c eliminating any microprocessor in performance of MP3 encoding decoding 3 simulta neously reading cd rom while encoding MP3 and writing a HDD or reading the HDD and decoding MP3 4 the retrospective selection of songs for recording and 5 com puterless high speed transfer between MP3 player record ers commonly called a bulk dump 0115 The elements of the recorder player device shown in the schematic diagram of FIG 1 appearing below the horizontal dashed line are substantially pre existing and conventional The elements of the invention that is the subject of the related invention are substantially shown above the horizontal dashed line although the nature and function of these particular elements is in no way required for operation of the present invention 0116 Referring to FIG 1 below the horizontal dashed line a Motor Driver 12 preferably type MM1538 or FAN8038 powers rotation of a CD ROM not shown so that a Servo 11 preferably type CXA2550 CXD3068 OPU KSM900 under control of a Micro controller 13 will deliver during rotation of the CD ROM digital data in the form of ISO CD ROM code words to the digital signal processor MP3 DSP 14 preferably type RSM88131A or TR2101 The entire CD mechanism may be for example Sanyo type DA23 0117 The digital data from the CD ROM is buffered in a memory SD RAM 16
19. Q subcode references the minute second and frames relative to the start of the track and also the Absolute Time that is the time in minutes seconds and frames relative to the whole disc 0070 When a drive is asked to seek to an audio sector it begins reading then compares the Q subcode information to the block address it is looking for Data transfer begins when the drive has located a Q subcode address close to the requested block address Many CD ROM drives seek an audio address within four Q subcode addresses of the address being sought 4 75th of a second in playback time In this scenario a request for a particular audio block could return any of nine blocks close to the desired position This is why extraction is not exact Clicks and pops that you sometimes hear in ripped files can be caused by this inexact positioning 0071 Recently some advances in extraction technology have made ripping much less troublesome and completely error free in many cases The ATAPI SFF8020 specifica tion includes the new MMC command set and is now used by many drive manufacturers in current lines of CD ROM drives The Multimedia Command Set MMC has this advantage many of the commands that were previously performed in software can now be executed by the CD ROM s controller chip One of these functions is the real time error correction of Layer 3 Reed Solomon Product like Code RSPC Others are error detection real time ECC correcti
20. US 20040148476A1 a Patent Application Publication ao Pub No US 2004 0148476 A1 ay United States Altare 43 Pub Date Jul 29 2004 54 PERFORMANCE PREDICATED AUTOMATIC DEFRAGMENTATION OF HARD DISKS PARTICULARLY FOR NON PC MOBILE DIGITAL DEVICES INCLUDING MUSIC RECORDER PLAYERS 76 Inventor William Christopher Altare Oceanside CA US Correspondence Address FUESS amp DAVIDENAS Suite II G 10951 Sorrento Valley Road San Diego CA 92121 1613 US 21 Appl No 10 205 190 22 Filed Jan 28 2003 Publication Classification 51 nt Cl coiere G06F 12 12 G06F 12 00 52 US CE sine 711 159 711 165 711 112 57 ABSTRACT Fragmentation of files upon a hard disk drive may be avoided or mitigated by i writing any and all new files onto operation 205 process normal recorder player the hard disk drive starting at a location which is then at the time of the writing of each file at the beginning of a commodious open and terminal area of variable size at the top of the hard disk called the then free space and then with the free space of the disk having become filled to a predetermined extent ii moving all recorded files into tight packed sequence using thus any disk space vacated by erasure s while reconstituting some portion of the free space and presenting all files contiguously and defrag mented Automatic defragmentation of the hard disk drive may also
21. al is also passed through the Audio CODEC 33 to the MP3 Encoder Decoder 34 where it is encoded to MP3 code preferably at a 24 bit code word bit length 0120 The MP3 encoded data is passed though the file management unit MPU 31 a custom chip for which may be substituted for purposes of the present invention a micro processor first to the buffer Memory 32 which is prefer ably of the FLASH or DRAM types When the buffer Memory 32 which is preferably 64K or larger in size becomes filled then its contents such as are then selected for permanent recording are moved en masse through and by the MPU 31 to the Hard Disk 30 which is preferably of the Winchester type and is more preferably a magnetic disk of 10 Gbyte or greater capacity 0121 At the conclusion of the play and record from analog operation the audio CD ROM has been played and MP3 encoded data in respect of the contents thereof the CD ROM lodged on the Hard Disk 30 0122 Another similar function and operational mode of the combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player is called play and record from digital In this operation mode a digital signal reflective of an analog audio wave form from the MP3 DSP 14 bypasses Audio CODEC 33 and is sent to MP3 Encoder Decoder 34 The decoding of this signal to analog audio is sent to the Audio CODEC 33 and then to the Amplifier 40 and so on meaning to the Head phone Amp 17 and then for play to any of i Headphon
22. ation of which there are many in the prior programming arts and of which the particular method of FIG 4 is not particularly elegant but in order to draw attention to the present invention as primarily any form of defragmentation automatically per US 2004 0148476 Al formed predicated on fragmented conditions sensed and not as any particular algorithm for or process of defragmenta tion In simplest terms the forte of the present invention is not simply that defragmentation may be performed or that it may preferably be so performed by new methods that are particularly well suited to a hard disk used for the substan tially linear writing and reading at substantially even demand rates of substantially even length generally within a multiplier factor of most commonly x4 files of digital music Instead the forte of the present invention to which the preferred methods are admittedly contributory inte grated and effective is to recognize that and when defragmentation should be performed in the first place 0151 Therefore by showing yet another substitute sub stantially for the right column of FIGS 2 and 3 FIG 4 actually serves to emphasize the block Does HDD need defrag in both FIGS 2 and 3 As explained in the Background of the Invention section of this specification this question i is not be asked ii is being asked too seldom and or iii is being asked inappropriately and without consideration of tho
23. ce capacity of the hard disk drive especially if changed because of the defragmentation is preferably displayed 0095 Further in accordance with the present invention it is alternatively possible to ii indirectly assess the fragmen tation level of a hard disk drive by assessing the read write performance of the hard disk drive This assessment depends upon having a general if not also a specific derived from the file allocation tables knowledge of the i size and ii nature of the files that are stored in the digital device and the iii normal manner of their use The assessment is thus not suitable to a computer where files of many different lengths types and uses are stored on the computer s hard disk drive 0096 However a straightforward and important example of where such an assessment may usefully be made US 2004 0148476 Al concerns the digital music files whether in a WAV or MP3 or other format of a digital music recorder player device Many of these files will exceed a certain size as is charac teristic of a song or other musical work The substantial number of files may be assumed to contain digital music Finally one normal manner of the use of these files is to read then out from beginning to end as permits the playing of music 0097 The micro program that causes the reading of digital data from the disk can by reference to a watchdog timer or the like or to an interrupt attendant upon a bu
24. d files are added to the disk sequentially from disk beginning to disk end In simplest terms the present invention accords for recognizing that a Winchester type magnetic hard disk drive needs defragmentation as may be determined by any one or ones of a number of i drive status and or ii performance indices 0073 The present invention further second contem plates a strategy and a method for reducing the fragmenta tion of records written upon a Winchester type magnetic hard disk drive in the first place The method has however a requirement in the nature of a trade off that an accom panying defragmentation type operation generally shorter simpler and faster than what is normally considered a defragmentation should be often performed especially for disk drives that become substantially full 0074 1 The Particular Consequences of Hard Disk Drive Fragmentation for Portable Digital Music Recorder Players 0075 The present invention is of particular utility in non personal computer type portable digital devices having read writable magnetic disks such as among other similar devices portable recorders and players of digital music of any format These devices are prone as are all disk drives to becoming fragmented during the reading and writing of files Reasonable patterns of usage of music player recorders can make that such fragmentation accrues as at the least 1 negatively affects power consumption as th
25. determine both i whether things are changing i e getting worse over time and or ii whether defragmentation which may be at times and from time to time user initiated has any affect on the occurrence of apparent faults 0144 If i the user seems to like to manually initiate defragmentation of the hard disk drive putatively for cause and ii some change of some moment can be detected in the fault counter then the firmware program can act to thereafter alert the user to a detected accrual or escalation in detected faults and ask the user to approve an automatic defragmentation of files 0145 This might be called adaptive defragmentation namely defragmentation proportional to both 1 the files written stored and read and 2 the uses to which they are put regardless of what are the files or the uses This is a very powerful technique For example consider the battle field of the future where a combatant may assimilate data upon the hard drive of his or her wearable computer Some specialized combatants may shoot and ultimately transmit digital video records of battle battlegrounds tac tical dispositions and situations and the like which digital video records will generally be quite voluminous Other specialized combatants may be probing the environment monitoring machines and accumulating and reporting digi tal status records in batches at times and from time to time These
26. digital status records are generally short 0146 Clearly the hard drives of both combatants will ultimately require defragmentation Once the concepts of the present invention are assimilated programmers or advanced skills are expected to be able to think just as clearly about strategies and practice for the maintaining the combat system disk drive as for example accumulating and using power from the power pack of the combat system 0147 The block 306 of FIG 3 is analogous and per forms the like function to block 206 of FIG 2 The fetching of the unused sectors in block 308 and the relocation of files in block 308 realize a simple and brute force form of defragmentation 0148 4 A Less Preferred Method of Defragmentation Drawing Attention to the Present Invention as Primarily any Form of Defragmentation Automatically Performed Predi cated on Fragmented Conditions Sensed and not as any Particular Algorithm for or Process of Defragmentation 0149 A flow chart of a less preferred embodiment of only a defragmentation operation as may be performed as part of the automatic defragmentation of the present invention is shown in FIG 4 In so showing only the process of defragmentation and not how it might be entered into in an automated fashion the flow chart of FIG 4 corresponds to the right column only of FIGS 2 and 3 0150 FIG 4 is included in this specification not simply as an alternative method of defragment
27. e 18a and or ii Speaker 18c1 and or iii through Radio Transmitter 1841 and antenna 1842 via a low power radio signal preferably FM to a proximate radio not shown for reception and play through the sound output system of the radio 0123 Meanwhile the MP3 encoded data from the MP3 Encoder Decoder is sent to the MPU 31 where it essentially undergoes the same treatment as it was previously Namely it is passed first to the buffer Memory 32 and then when the buffer Memory 32 becomes filled the MP3 data is moved en masse through and by the MPU 31 to the Hard Disk 30 where it is stored 0124 Accordingly at the conclusion of the play and record from digital operation the audio CD ROM has again been played and MP3 encoded data in respect of the contents thereof the CD ROM has again become lodged on the Hard Disk 30 US 2004 0148476 Al 0125 Both the play and record from analog opera tional mode illustrated in FIG 2a and more preferably the play and record from digital operational mode illustrated in FIG 2b can be replicated in a Program mode where i audio play is disabled and as a consequence that the information ultimately retrieved from the CD ROM need not be played in real time ii the entire process of MP3 encoding and storage may be run faster essentially as fast as the weakest link in the chain of reads decodes and or conversions and writes will run Normally the weakest link is t
28. e mechanical read head of the disk must be frequently repositioned during the retrieval or writing of a single file or at the worse 2 prevents uninterrupted playback and or 3 precludes error less recording 0076 Nonetheless to this occurrence inevitable with the installing and un installing of many files i e song tracks over time digital recorder players are being sold circa 2002 that do not even have a defragmentation capa bility It will thus likely be a surprise to the owner users of these units that at least after some years of use during which some interchange of the contents recorded on the disk occurs performance may become so degraded that i new tracks files cannot be accurately recorded at all ii frag mented old tracks files cannot be read without discernable defects in the audio playback and or iii overall storage capacity diminishes as a function of the accrued fragmen tation of the disk Of course should i the recording playback device have a computer interface and its owner user have ii a computer iii accommodating this interface also with iv adequate storage capacity it may be possible to off load the disk of the device to the computer and to then re write contents i e files onto the disk substantially sequentially and with reduced fragmentation However in other cases it may come as a rude surprise to the owner users of digital music recorder players to note that their multi year
29. e sake of completeness the explanation of the device as explained in the companion predecessor appli cation is as follows 0113 The device of FIG 1 supports as its principle function the playing and recording of digitally encoded music More particularly it conventionally performs a sequence of 1 first converting at a first time successive first bit length first encoded first digital words to a first analog signal 2 first playing at the first time this first analog signal through speakers or headphones or the like to the human ear while also 3 second encoding and re digitizing preferably at the first time this first analog signal into a successive second bit length second encoded second digital words followed by 4 storing these second digital words until at a later second time 5 second converting the second digital words into a second analog signal and 6 second playing also at the second time this second analog signal through speakers or headphones or the like to the human ear or the like 0114 In this substantially conventional sequence the device of related application realizes inter alia 1 re Jencoding an audio wave form for later playback in a longer code word and better encoding format than that word and format in which the audio wave form was initially encoded 2 conserving power in a portable CD ROM and MP3 player recorder by various strategies of 2a minimiz ing data references to a hard disk drive HD
30. end on drives from well known manufacturers to do a good job at audio extraction US 2004 0148476 Al On the other hand some models from major manufacturers have been known to do extraction poorly or not at all Many inexpensive non branded drives rip audio just fine Newer drives will perform better than older drives not just because they are newer but because many of them incorporate new technology that makes ripping faster and more accurate While many older CD ROM drives will work for extracting audio they were not built or optimized for that task and extraction software will have to work longer and harder to get the audio track from the disc into a clean file for recording to CD R 0064 If possible dedicate a hard disk drive to ripped files perhaps an older smaller hard drive that you have lying around This prevents hard disk phenomena such as cross linked files and excessive fragmentation from causing prob lems when you re record the files to CD If you use a separate drive you should have to defragment it less fre quently as all the files on it will be large files An added bonus is that instead of defragmenting the drive you can just format it after you have made your CD and be assured of clean contiguous disc space for your next extraction job Recall that full defragmentation of a large hard drive takes quite a bit of time and ties up your computer until it s done Get a good CD ROM drive for audio extraction
31. equally as fragmented 0085 In accordance with the second aspect of the present invention fragmentation is completely avoided upon the initial writing of digital records particularly digital music by the simple expedient implemented in the logical design of the hard disk drive recording control micro program of writing new files into and starting at the then beginning of a generally relatively commodious open and terminal area of the hard disk called free space The hard disk drive file writing control is set to permit new files to be written into this free space only As the free space fills and as previously written files are erased then the hard disk drive even though erased files and their attendant voids have become present is still technically non fragmented It is also of course replete with such voids between records as make usage of the full storage capacity of the hard disk is at least temporarily inefficient and sub optimal 0086 In accordance with this second aspect of the present invention upon the completion of filling the defined free space to some predetermined extent a message will preferably be sent either audible or visual to the device s user demanding or petitioning that compaction of the hard disk drive should proceed Although such compaction is but a simple and degenerate form of general defragmentation there is little use of confusing the user with this minor distinction nor for t
32. er with a database server you will find many differences The defragmentation soft ware should respect these differences On file servers the software should not only defragment files it should reorder them by the date of last file access So a computer owner user can thus save time and therefore money if it is needed to search for a file later 0039 Although the various computer defragmentation schemes and software not strictly relevant to the present invention save to show that there are all types and qualities of defragmentation Alperstadt advises not to rely on the built in Windows defragger In Windows 2000 XP built in software calls itself a defragger This tool is slow incom plete and has a limited scheduling capability Further it can only defrag one drive volume on a machine at a time 0040 In summary Aperstadt finds that it is absolutely necessary for administrators of large enterprise networks to be the only ones who manage the defragmentation of their work stations and servers They should ask themselves Can work station users defragment themselves Keep in mind that most users don t have administrator rights on their machines 0041 In still yet another article Case study Ending the remote defrag drag by Jan Stafford 20 Feb 2002 at the search WindowsManageability com site Momentum Health Ware Information Systems IT manager Paul Beaudry finds that the attitude If it s not broken don t fix it
33. fact of life in Windows environments The trick is to prevent fragmentation from hindering system perfor mance 0020 The system administrator of the same Wisconsin business advises 0021 Do run your defrag software religiously on every work station At a minimum run it at least every 30 days 0022 Do run it on your most heavily used computers at least every two weeks This will increase their computer s performance causing them to track you down less US 2004 0148476 Al 0023 On the server side do schedule it to defrag during inactive periods such as late at night And do run those at least once a week 0024 Don t forget to shut down any running applica tions Files in use when the software runs will not be defragged 0025 Do set up a test environment to get a feel for which defragger will work best Compare apples to apples Even if you think different products are incredibly similar it is still worth your time to compare them 0026 Do test them on similar hardware with similar configurations he said This will allow your tests to be as accurate as possible 0027 Do look at all the features that might benefit you Look at the functionalities offered the reliability and how easy the monitoring will be 0028 In yet another related article the Top 10 disk defragging pointers again by Meredith B Derby the best ways to harness the power of a defragmenter are related by Frank A
34. ffer underflow of the like that there has been an interruption in the retrieval of the digital data and in the playing of what is presumed to be music An occurrence of this for one or some few times may not be conclusive of anything How ever an up down pseudo fault counter may be kept and or like programming techniques employed to determine both i whether things are changing i e getting worse over time and or ii whether defragmentation which may be at times and from time to time user initiated has any affect on the occurrence of apparent faults If i the user seems to like to manually initiate defragmentation of the hard disk drive putatively for cause and ii some change of some moment can be detected in the fault counter then the firmware program can act to thereafter alert the user to a detected accrual or escalation in detected faults and ask the user to approve an automatic defragmentation of files 0098 This alternative method does not always work to detect a single or some few highly fragmented files This method may take some time dependent upon the types and lengths of files being processed the user attentiveness to the audio output and his her action if any dependent upon any detected faults in this output and or the effectiveness of the micro program to recognize that an untoward condition is re occurring to stabilize and to contribute to the conduct of defragmentati
35. gmentation of the files 0138 After completion of the auto defrag function a reanalysis of the hard disk drive preferably occurs automati cally as shown in the path 205 leading back to decision blocks 202 and 204 Defragmentation may even be per formed iteratively but unless a user has steadfastly resisted automatic defragmentation while proceeding to fragment his or her disk drive need not normally be so performed 0139 Status is preferably displayed to the user as either complete or finished or the like and preferably the newly adjusted free space capacity of the hard disk drive especially if changed because of the defragmentation may optionally be displayed 0140 3 A Second Automatic Defragmentation Method 0141 A flow chart of second preferred automatic defrag mentation method in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG 3 0142 The crucial block 304 determines the need for defragmentation If successively recorded files are not writ ten to the end of the hard disk drive as in the method of the previous section 2 then automatic initiation of defrag mentation contingent upon reaching the end of the record able area is clearly inappropriate Nonetheless those other criteria of the previous section by which a need for defrag mentation is determinable are still validly made in block 304 In accordance with the present invention it is alterna tively possible in block 304 t
36. hat matter presenting him or her with the need to make a decision Accordingly the preferred form of the user notice is a visual message similar to the follow ing Automatic Defragmentation will start in a predeter mined period of time as is predetermined and displayed to the user no file recording can proceed until finished 0087 The automatic simplified defragmentation as is most commonly implemented in firmware will then start moving complete files upon the hard disk drive into a continuous tight packed sequence commencing with space previously occupied by the now erased file closest to the beginning of the hard disk drive The simplified defragmen tation operation will complete upon the down relocation of all stored files A new free space at the top of the disk drive will then be registered to the control micro program and available for use By this procedure fragmentation of old or new files is not possible because all files are written linearly into the free space of the hard disk drive only 0088 3 Automatic Defragmentation of a Hard Disk Drive 0089 In its primary aspect the present invention is embodied in an automatic defragmentation method The automatic of the method is more for the recognition of when a hard disk drive particularly as may be used in a generally portable digital recording and playback device most commonly as is used for music needs defragmenting than for the ma
37. he CD ROM which is then spun at 4x to 6x normal speed Because of settling time in the de companding cir cuits of the CODEC 33 it is preferred that the MP3 encoded data be developed in and by the record from digital operational mode 0126 The entire purpose of logging MP3 data to the Hard Disk 30 has been or course to provide for later retrieval and play In an operational mode and function to playback MP3 from hard disk operational mode of the player recorder During playback the MP3 data from the Hard Disk 30 is extracted to through and by the MPU 31 to the buffer Memory 32 The MPU 31 also serves to issue successive MP3 encoded data words to the MP3 Encoder Decoder 34 now acting as an MP3 decoder The MP3 data decoded to a companded and encoded audio signal is sent to the Audio CODEC 33 where it is de companded and further decoded to produce the pure audio signal sent to the Amplifier 40 As is by now understood the path of the audio signal from the Amplifier 40 ultimately permits that it is transduced to sound in by way of example Headphone 18a 0127 The portable combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player of FIG 1 may transfer MP3 data to a like unit normally over a code word or otherwise protected proprietary transfer level protocol protected interface to an identical or like unit MP3 data from the Hard Disk 30 is transferred by action of MPU 31 to be buffered in buffer Memory 32 and then as called for b
38. he head of the magnetic disk the substantial possibility of breaks in the data stream upon reading or writing due to excessive fragmentation of the read files This is however the wrong way to go 1 simply delaying the inevitable as fragmentation gets worse and worse 2 increasing cost and 3 failing to accord for such higher recording and reading rates as may in the future attend by way of example digital video A better approach is to keep the disk drive adequately defragmented 0083 Third a computer typically has with its typically larger high speed semiconductor memory and its more extensive digital logics a better and more powerful capa bility to defragment a hard disk drive than does a much much less expensive recorder player In other words although aficionados of digital music recorded in for example the MP3 format may keep their music tracks files US 2004 0148476 Al on both their thousand dollar level personal computers and also on their hundred dollar level portable recorder players the computer has much more horsepower to defragment a disk drive when and as proves necessary or prudent 0084 According to all these considerations it is rela tively more desirable to prevent the hard drive of a portable digital recorder player device from becoming fragmented let alone badly fragmented in the first place than it is by way of comparison to prevent the hard drive of a personal computer from becoming
39. he top three contenders 0015 After downloading all three products one was set up on test machines on identical hardware and after a week rolled into production use on the system s heaviest users The software was scheduled to defrag the computers each day at lunchtime Performance of these computers was then compared to similar users who didn t have the defrag software installed 0016 It was found that defragmenting of the Windows master file table MFT was useful the MFT when highly fragmented causing the hard drive to fail find the correct files needed to run the operating system and crashing the com puter Importantly the MFT can only be defragged when machines are booted up 0017 The selected Defrag 2000 Pro software product defragments the MFT file every time a computer is rebooted It also can be scheduled to defrag the other files at any time If the scheduled defrag is missed because a computer is not turned on the software will know and will run it within 72 hours of the missed date the system administrator receiving a report that the failure has occurred 0018 A cutback in help desk calls better end user per formance and more system reliability were realized benefits with a 17 23 increase in work station performance 0019 In another article Disk defragmenting dos and don ts also by Meredith B Derby it is related that since Windows stores files in fragmented chunks disk fragmen tation is a
40. lperstadt managing director of Berlin Germany based O amp O Software GmbH maker of two Windows defragging products 0029 Alperstadt finds that the biggest mistake an IT manager can make is not to use defragmentation software Defragmentation can result in a 200 performance gain on a single computer Leaving your hard disk fragmented is simply another way to burn money Total cost of ownership may be reduced dramatically simply by installing and using a defragger 0030 He finds an important part of defragmenting is knowing when you need to run the software Disk fragmen tation causes a bad slowdown of your system Defragmen tation itself usually costs resources too It is up to the user to see when he she will need to defrag his her hard disk If you think you need to remember that it can be a very time consuming process Some defraggers however have an integrated functionality to check automatically if your hard disk is fragmented more or less than a predefined value 0031 Disk fragmentation starts even if there are only two files on your disk and only one file has been changed You should start defragmentation right after the installation of the operating system and of course after installing your defrag menter 0032 Know your disk capacity and potential disk errors 0033 The biggest hurdle defragmentation software encounters is heavily loaded hard disks There must be a minimum of 15 free disk space to start
41. nner of actually conducting the defragmen tation of files which is substantially conventional Jul 29 2004 0090 In accordance with the present invention fragmen tation of a hard disk drive is automatically detected either i directly by reading the records files stored upon the hard drive and assessing the extent of their fragmentation and or ii indirectly by assessing read write performance of the hard drive in a manner that is unique and un associated with computers 0091 When fragmentation is detected i directly then either a factory fragmentation level is preset or a user definable fragmentation level is set and thereafter fragmen tation is automatically checked upon each start up of the mobile or non computer hard disk drive device If the fragmentation level is detected to be under the factory or user definable preset set then the further automatic defrag mentation function is by passed If the fragmentation level is at or above factory or user definable preset set then the further automatic defragmentation function is activated 0092 The automatic defragmentation preferably pro ceeds by first checking the power levels to ensure defrag mentation can be accomplished without power loss Next an alert audible or visual or both is sent to the user stating automatic defragmentation is required and will start in a variable preset amount of time permitting the user to disable this function if he chooses not to
42. ns of a song that naturally follow each other when playing the song do not follow each other in the physical layout of the disc itself This is part of the disc s error correction used to ensure that errors caused by dust and scratches for example do not cause audible errors when the disc is played 0056 Digital Audio Extraction or DAE is sometimes perhaps unfortunately called ripping Ripping involves moving the contents of an audio track on a CD to a hard drive or other storage device by reading the track from the CD and creating a file that can then be manipulated in various ways A number of file formats can be used includ ing AIFF on the Macintosh and the WAV format under Windows 0057 Why is it sometimes difficult to get good quality audio extracted from a disc And why is the process so slow in many cases This takes a little understanding of how the data on an audio disc is organized 0058 An audio disc consists of frames each of which contains 24 bytes of user data synchronization error cor rection and control and display bits The audio CD s data is not arranged on the disc in distinct physical units The data in one frame is interleaved with the data in other frames This prevents a scratch or other defect in or on the disc from destroying a frame beyond the ability of the reader to correct the data A scratch will destroy a little bit of many frames rather than a whole frame or frames so using erro
43. o indirectly assess the frag mentation level of a hard disk drive by assessing the read write performance of the hard disk drive This assess ment depends upon having a general if not also a specific derived from the file allocation tables knowledge of the i size and ii nature of the files that are stored in the digital device and the iii normal manner of their use This type of assessment is thus not suitable to a computer where files of many different lengths types and uses are stored on the computer s hard disk drive It is however generally suitably applied to assess the substantially linear writing and reading mostly at a substantially even data transfer rate of substan tially even length generally within a multiplier factor of most commonly x4 files of digital music 0143 As a still further alternative or complimentary evaluation performed in block 304 a micro program that causes the reading of digital data from the disk can by reference to a watchdog timer or the like or to an interrupt attendant upon a buffer underflow of the like that there has been an interruption in the retrieval of the digital data and Jul 29 2004 in the playing of what is presumed to be music Occurrence of but one or some few times are not normally determina tive of a requirement for defragmentation of the hard disk However an up down pseudo fault counter may be kept and or like programming techniques employed to
44. on Jul 29 2004 Sheet 6 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 from Fig 4q TOP Any FF s size match FSB s no between them Move higher CF down towards beginning of disk Update File System FSB FF amp CF Tables Any updates in last pass to Fig 4 sheet A LOOP US 2004 0148476 Al PERFORMANCE PREDICATED AUTOMATIC DEFRAGMENTATION OF HARD DISKS PARTICULARLY FOR NON PC MOBILE DIGITAL DEVICES INCLUDING MUSIC RECORDER PLAYERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0001 1 Field of the Invention 0002 The present invention generally concerns defrag mentation of hard disks and hard disk drives normally magnetically recorded hard disks as are written in Winches ter type hard disk drives 0003 The present invention particularly concerns the criteria by which defragmentation of a hard disk drive may be automatically initiated particularly for and in non pc mobile digital devices including music recorder players 0004 2 Description of the Prior Art 0005 What is Defragmentation 0006 The instant a file is saved on a computer hard disk disk fragmentation begins The more fragmented files stored in one system the more performance deteriorates Thank fully the eighth wonder of the IT world the disk defrag menter program can almost reverse the effects of fragmen tation and increase system performance significantly 0007 A defragmenter program is a software utility that rearranges
45. on of one byte per P word and Q word and repeated ECC passes Repeated ECC passes increase the reliability of the drive s read function Controllers from Oak Technology and Winbond the most widely used CD ROM drive con troller chips have these functions built in Accordingly recorders and drives with these chips can extract audio more effectively and efficiently less complicated algorithms can be used by the ripping software As these controller chips position the read head more accurately than before existing synchronized read algorithms will also work faster This is because data comparisons will match sooner and the head can then move to the next portion of data quickly This new feature is called Accurate Streaming Drives using Accu rate Streaming can rip in a burst mode Thus extraction speeds are faster and the extraction is much more accurate SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0072 The present invention first contemplates perform ing the defragmentation of a magnetic hard disk and of a Winchester type magnetic hard disk drive automatically conditioned upon assessment of any of i the fragmentation status of the disk ii access performance to records upon US 2004 0148476 Al the disk during use and or iii exhaustion of available disk recording space this assessment of the remaining disk recording space being especially relevant where the disk s recording space has been consumed by a novel procedure where newly adde
46. on when and only when both propitious and timely However this alternative method does have the advantage of working in a hard disk drive device that is never shut off and or is shut off infrequently relative to its accrual of unacceptable fragmentation levels 0099 It is possible to use both methods at once both directly and indirectly assessing the need for defragmenting the hard disk drive 0100 These and other aspects and attributes of the present invention will become increasingly clear upon ref erence to the following drawings and accompanying speci fication BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0101 Referring particularly to the drawings for the pur pose of illustration only and not to limit the scope of the invention in any way these illustrations follow 0102 FIG 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary digital hard disk drive device to wit a portable combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player in which any of the automatic defragmentation methods of the present invention are operative 0103 FIG 2 is a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a first automatic defragmentation method in accordance with the present invention Jul 29 2004 0104 FIG 3 is a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a first automatic defragmentation method in accordance with the present invention 0105 FIG 4 is a flow chart of a less preferred embodi ment of only a defragmentation operation as may be per formed as pa
47. or alternatively ensue by recognizing during normal use of the hard disk drive and without any manual or any sched uled invocation of any fragmentation assessment routine when the files of a hard disk drive are undesirably frag mented and responsively to the recognizing defragmenting the files of the hard disk drive The recognizing may be i direct by reading of files attendant upon each start up of the hard disk drive and or ii indirect by assuming the files are substantially of known types lengths and usages e g digital music files and monitoring the times and or read faults during retrieval as an indication of the fragmented defragmented status of the files to connect AC and verify connection Scan HDD for unused sectors and build table Scan HDD for fragmented files and build table condense fragmented files that contain embedded free space 216 move files to form one contiguous block of files and one contiguous block of free space Patent Application Publication Jul 29 2004 Sheet 1 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 T 4 NiMH Batteries Patent Application Publication Jul 29 2004 Sheet 2 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 derde hi EES Line In d MP3 Encoder Decoder Display Keypad i Processo Lil dad Aodio Targa He Patent Application Publication Jul 29 2004 Sheet 3 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 208 prompt operator to connec
48. r correc tion technologies the missing data can be recovered and the disc can play normally without discernible loss of content or quality 0059 Use these tips when ripping audio and your chances for success will increase 0060 1 Make sure the disc is clean free of dust finger prints and other foreign matter Discs can be cleaned with commercially available cleaners and cleaning kits but these are not necessary to ensure a clean readable disc Simply hold the disc under warm running water Lather one hand with hand soap bar or liquid and rub the soap gently on both sides of the disc with your fingers Rise your hands and the disc well with warm water and pat the disc dry with a soft lint free cloth or towel 0061 2 Make sure the disc does not suffer from any of the following conditions warping deep scratches or a nicked or peeling reflective surface These can cause the reading drive to seek excessively as it tries to read damaged or unreadable errors resulting in long ripping times or corrupted files 0062 3 Use your best drive for ripping even if it is not your fastest drive If you have more than one CD recorder or CD ROM drive try your fastest drive first If the results are not satisfactory you can tell by listening to the ripped file use a slower drive 0063 Best drive is of course a subjective judgment that you will need to make for yourself after some experi mentation You can usually dep
49. rt of the automatic defragmentation of the present invention DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 0106 The following description is of the best mode presently contemplated for the carrying out of the invention This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and is not to be taken in a limiting sense The scope of the invention is best deter mined by reference to the appended claims 0107 Although specific embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings it should be understood that such embodiments are by way of example only and are merely illustrative of but a small number of the many possible specific embodiments to which the principles of the invention may be applied Various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains are deemed to be within the spirit scope and contemplation of the invention as further defined in the appended claims 0108 1 An Exemplary Digital Hard Disk Drive Device on Which any of the Automatic Defragmentation Methods of the Present Invention are Operative 0109 A schematic diagram of an exemplary digital hard disk drive device to wit a portable combination CD ROM and MP3 recorder player in which any of the automatic defragmentation methods of the present invention are opera tive is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG 1 0110 This entire section 1 is substan
50. se factors taught herein that properly make that a disk especially as is used in recording writing storing and playing reading digital music needs defragmentation 0152 In interpretation of FIG 4 the File Size is the number of sectors clusters or other storage units needed to hold the data Contiguous means that the file data is in one or more continuous sequential block s upon the hard disk drive Condense means to move file data until it is contiguous Size Match means that the size of each of arbitrary files under evaluation is related to the Free Space Block FSB size presently being filled using a best fit algorithm 0153 Assumptions in the operation of the defragmenta tion of FIG 4 are that minimal CPU memory is available or at least used The files are not buffered in RAM only the file tables Further approximately 10 to 15 of the recording area of the hard disk drive is free space with at least one large open block always being greater than or equal to the largest fragmented file Finally in the flow charted method the tables can hold part of the file system information in a sliding window scheme 0154 These constructs will be well understood by those skilled in the programming arts as will the defragmentation process of FIG 4 without further explanation 0155 In accordance with the preceding explanation variations and adaptations of the automatic defragmentation
51. t AC and verify connection 202 recorder player idle 210 Scan HDD for unused sectors and build table 203 yos sees20T 204 212 Scan HDD for no Does HDD fragmented eae files and defrag build table 214 209 condense no 206 fragmented files that contain embedded free space process normal recorder player operation 216 move files to 205 form one contiguous block of files and one contiguous block of free space Fig 2 Patent Application Publication Jul 29 2004 Sheet 4 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 306 prompt operator to connect AC and verify connection 308 Fetch table of yes unused sectors 304 Does HDD need defrag no no process normal recorder player operation 310 move files to form one contiguous block of files and one contiguous block of free space Fig 3 Patent Application Publication Jul 29 2004 Sheet 5 of 6 US 2004 0148476 A1 Drive defragmentation ogical Operation Scan drive File Structure build table of Free Space Blocks FSB build table of Fragmented Files FF build table of Contiguous Files CE from Fig 4 sheet B LOOP Any FF s with embedded FSB s Condense File es so Contiguous Update File System FSB FF amp CF Tables no to Fig 4b Fig 4q Patent Application Publicati
52. ten find one necessary and several vendors provide defrag menters The Windows 2000 product of Microsoft comes with a light version of the Diskeeper defragmenter some users especially corporate users use the Diskeeper program or some other full function defragmentation pro gram to manage storage efficiency and performance Jul 29 2004 0010 Why Defrag 0011 A number of articles concerning defragmentation appear circa 2002 on the world wide web at searchWin dowsManageability com The Windows Manageability Spe cific Search Engine presented by TechTarget com 0012 In the Case study Defrag for less hang time 29 Nov 2001 by Meredith B Derby it is reported that the four Windows NT servers of a Wisconsin business were crashing twice weekly and hogging CPU speed sapping the perfor mance of 150 work stations Some four hours each week were spent rebooting the company servers 0013 Knowing operating systems can store files ineffi ciently company personnel had always defragmented their computer systems but had no built in defragmentation utility in Windows NT nor any way to schedule defragmentations 0014 After collaboration on a solution for the work station problems and research into utilities to automate and schedule maintenance Executive Software s Diskeeper O amp O Software GmbH s Defrag 2000 Professional Edition and Gaithersburg MD based Raxco Software s PerfectDisk became t
53. tially only to show and explain that in a disk based digital recorder player digital records digitalized music files are at times and from time to time recorded to and read from the hard disk drive Moreover in doing so the records or files become fragmented Readers who find this simply concept com pletely clear and blatantly obvious may usefully skip to the next section 2 Other readers who want to know exactly how under programmed control digital data encoding music sound may be moved to and from a hard disk drive for purposes of writing recording and for reading playing may usefully read this section 1 0111 The device of FIG 1 is the subject of the inventor s co pending U S patent application Ser No 09 860 935 filed May 18 2001 for a PORTABLE CD ROM ISO TO HDD MP3 RECORDER WITH SIMULTANEOUS CD READ MP3 ENCODE HDD WRITE OR HDD READ MP3 DECODE TO PLAY POWER SAVING BUFFER AND ENHANCED SOUND OUTPUT That application is itself descended from and claims benefit of priority of U S provisional patent application Serial No 60 205 936 filed on May 18 2000 for an ECHO MUSIC SYSTEM This par ticular device and its salient characteristics are in no way required for the practice of any and all of the methods of the present invention The device of FIG 1 simply represents one exemplary platform upon which the methods of the present invention may usefully be implemented US 2004 0148476 Al 0112 For th
54. wherein the defragmenting comprises Jul 29 2004 first checking power levels of a device in which the hard disk drive is contained to ensure defragmentation of files can be accomplished without exhaustion of power 11 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 5 wherein the defragmenting comprises making an alert to the user of a device in which the hard disk drive is contained the alert stating both that automatic defragmentation is required and will start in a variable preset amount of time 12 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 11 wherein the defragmenting further comprises permitting the user to postpone defragmenting if he she chooses not to proceed 13 The hard disk drive automatic defragmentation method according to claim 5 wherein normal operational functions using the hard disk drive are disabled in a device in which the hard disk drive is installed for the duration of the defragmenting
55. y Display Keyboard Processor 35 which manages the Universal Serial Bus 38a or the Infrared Transceiver 385 for purposes of data transfer to the other device to the Display Keyboard Processor 35 and to the Duplicate Unit 1a over by way of example a Universal Serial Bus 38a or an Infrared Transceiver 38b 0128 Needless to say this transfer can be very fast up to 10 Mbits second Accordingly large numbers of tracks of musical works which are stored in MP3 or related com pressed format on the Hard Drive 30 of one unit may be transferred i in gross ii in accordance with a transfer list analogous to a play list iv as differing in title or v track by track under user control to the Hard Drive 30 of the other unit The transfer mode iv is especially powerful permitting a user operator owner with a virgin Hard Drive but access to another fully populated CD ROM and MP3 recorder player in accordance with the present invention such as might be owned by a friend to load large numbers of musical works typically up to the approximately 1200 that will fit within a 10 Gbit disk storage to his her unit in mere minutes 0129 Additional elements shown in the schematic of FIG 1 will be substantially self explanatory to a practitio ner of the electronic music system design arts Power is normally supplied through three separate options 1 110 220 volt a c input 2 a battery jack or 3 batteries Inputs Jul 29 2
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