Patent ID: 7499929
Filing Date: 2009-03-03
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computing device including a storage device having contents of a file and a file system for storing and retrieving the contents of the file on the storage device, the file comprising a file header and a plurality of file segments, each of at least some of the file segments being null data and each of at least some of the file segments being substantive data, the file system constructing a segment allocation table, the segment allocation table referenced from the file header, the segment allocation table having an entry for each file segment, wherein the file system stores at least one substantive file segment, wherein the entry in the segment allocation table for the at least one substantive file segment comprises a reference to a location of the at least one substantive file segment, wherein the file system does not store each null file segment, wherein a null data segment of the file represents data removed from the file, wherein the entry in the segment allocation table for each null file segment does not contain a reference to any location, wherein the file system stores the segment allocation table as a plurality of non-contiguous segment allocation table fragments on the storage device, and wherein the file header comprises a plurality of references to locations of the non-contiguous segment allocation table fragments.