Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Question: How long does it take to copy 1.0 MB of data onto a 3" floppy 
> disk?

  Don't you mean a 3.5-inch floppy disk? I think 3-inch floppy disks
existed at some point, but they were really rare.

> Well, in this instance, there is. You see, for whatever reason, there's 
> an issue with putting many small files onto such a disk. I don't know 
> whether the issue is with the file system design or just the OS 
> implementation, but it appears that every file creation operation 
> involves writing the file's data to one block, and updating the file 
> listing in another block. The result is that if you create many hundred 
> tiny files, the [extremely slow] R/W heads spend forever repeatedly 
> tracking back and forth, once per file. In this instance, copy time is 
> proportional to the /number/ of files, not their /size/.

  That's how FAT works.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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