Seminar On

Disk Free Space Management 

20BCS016  ASHWIN SAMPATH   

20BCS019  BADHRINATHAN.S.B  

20BCS020  BHARATH S  

20BCS024  DEEPTHI A S  

 Various Implementation of Free Space
List
• Bit Vector
• Linked List
• Grouping
• Counting
 Bit Vector
• It has Free Space list it implemented as a bit map or bit vector
• If the block is free the bit is set to 1
• If the block is allocated to the bit is set to 0
 Bit Vector
Example
• 2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,17,18,25,26 & 27 are free and the rest of the
blocks are allocated .
• The free space bit map would be
• 0011110011111100011000110000011100000………
 (n blocks)

bit[l]= 0 block[l] free

1 block[l] occupied
Block number calculation
(number of bits per word)*
(number of 0-Value words)+
Offset of first 1 bit
 Bit map requires extra space
Example :
I. Disk Size = 1.3 GB
II. Block Size = 512 bytes
III. Need a bit map of over 332 KB to track it free blocks
 Advantage

Relatively Simple and efficient

Easy to get contiguous files

 Linked List
 Link all free disk blocks together
Keep a pointer to the first free block in special location on the disk and
caching it in memory
Cannot get contiguous space easily
No waste of space
This block contains a pointer to next free block
 Linked Free Space List on Disk
Example :
A. Pointer to block two as the first free block
B. Block two would contain a pointer to block three
C. Which would point to block four
D. Which would point 5,8,9,10,11,12,13,17,18,25,26,27
 Linked list (free list)
• Cannot get contiguous space easily
• No waste of space
• Not efficient for faster access
• Substantial input/output
Bit Vector
11000011000000111001111110001111

Grouping
Block 2  3, 4, 5
Block 5  8, 9, 10
Block 10  11, 12, 13
Block 13  17, 28, 25
Block 25  26, 27

 Counting
2 4
8 6
17 2
25 3
 Grouping
o Store addresses of n free blocks in the first free block
o The first n-1 of these are actually free
o The last block contains the address as of another free blocks.
 Advantage
• Large number of free blocks can be found quickly
 Counting
Based on the fact that several contiguous blocks may be allocated and
freed simultaneously
Holds the address of the first free block and number “n” of free
contiguous blocks that follow the first block
Each entry is the free space list consist of a disk address and count
 Counting
Entry in a free space list consists of
• Disk address
• Count
What it’s limits
1. Each entry requires more space than a simple disk address
2. The over all list be shorter, as long as the count is greater than one
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