ITC 3306
Storage Blocks in Operating Systems
Columbia Southern University
ITC 3306: Operating Systems
Storage Blocks in Operating Systems
The file storage system is one of the most important elements of an OS. It provides
access to executable programs and files used by the OS to perform its necessary operations and
functions. The core of any file system within an OS is the file directory structure and the
collection of files within that directory structure (McHoes & Flynn, 2018).
Functions of Storage Blocks
As explained by McHoes & Flynn (2018) Files in any operating system are composed of
records. A user is actually wanting to access the records in the file when the user wants to modify
the file contents. These file records, regardless of their fixed or variable length, can be accessible
individually or grouped into storage blocks (McHoes & Flynn, 2018). The logical and physical
storage blocks of the file-organization module contain metadata and data related to a file in the
operating system (Garg & Verma, 2017). When the file organization module requests it, the free-
space manager keeps track of the unallocated storage blocks and supplies them to it. The I/O
transfer between the main memory and the storage disk are performed in units of blocks, thereby
improving the overall I/O efficiency (Garg & Verma, 2017).
Contiguous Allocation
The operating system of past had records stored based on the contiguous storage. In such
storage every file covers a set of contiguous blocks or disk addresses. The contiguous allocation
of file is defined by the disk address and length of the first block (Garg & Verma, 2017, p. 169).
Basically, they’re stored one after the other, makes it very simple to implement and manage
(McHoes & Flynn, 2018). The key benefit of this configuration is that the amount of disk seeks
Storage Blocks in Operating Systems
Columbia Southern University
ITC 3306: Operating Systems
Storage Blocks in Operating Systems
The file storage system is one of the most important elements of an OS. It provides
access to executable programs and files used by the OS to perform its necessary operations and
functions. The core of any file system within an OS is the file directory structure and the
collection of files within that directory structure (McHoes & Flynn, 2018).
Functions of Storage Blocks
As explained by McHoes & Flynn (2018) Files in any operating system are composed of
records. A user is actually wanting to access the records in the file when the user wants to modify
the file contents. These file records, regardless of their fixed or variable length, can be accessible
individually or grouped into storage blocks (McHoes & Flynn, 2018). The logical and physical
storage blocks of the file-organization module contain metadata and data related to a file in the
operating system (Garg & Verma, 2017). When the file organization module requests it, the free-
space manager keeps track of the unallocated storage blocks and supplies them to it. The I/O
transfer between the main memory and the storage disk are performed in units of blocks, thereby
improving the overall I/O efficiency (Garg & Verma, 2017).
Contiguous Allocation
The operating system of past had records stored based on the contiguous storage. In such
storage every file covers a set of contiguous blocks or disk addresses. The contiguous allocation
of file is defined by the disk address and length of the first block (Garg & Verma, 2017, p. 169).
Basically, they’re stored one after the other, makes it very simple to implement and manage
(McHoes & Flynn, 2018). The key benefit of this configuration is that the amount of disk seeks
