Disk shuffling

disk layout algorithms, seek distance optimization, disk data placement, disk reorganization © Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company 1991 Adapting disk layouts to observed, rather than predicted, access patterns can result in faster I/O operations. In particular, a technique called disk shuffling, which moves frequently-accessed data into the center of a disk, can substantially reduce mean seek distances. We report here on extensions to and (partial) validation of earlier work on this approach at the University of Maryland. Starting from disk access traces obtained during normal system use of 4.2BSD-based file systems, we establishe