Patent ID: 8468137

Claim:
A method for execution by a computing core to store a data object within at least a portion of a distributed storage network, the method comprising: receiving, via an interface of the computer core, the data object; ascertaining an error coding dispersal storage function for the data object; determining a segmenting approach of the error coding dispersal storage function, wherein the segmenting approach includes a fixed-sized segmenting or a variable sized segmenting; when the segmenting approach is the variable sized segmenting: determining a variable segmenting pattern; and segmenting the data object into a plurality of segments in accordance with the variable segmenting pattern; for a segment of the plurality of segments: encoding the segment into a set of error coded data slices in accordance with an error coding function of the error coding dispersal storage function; creating a set of slice names corresponding to the set of error coded data slices; for each of the set of error coded data slices, appending a corresponding one of the set of slice names thereto to create a set of data slices; and outputting, via the interface, the set of data slices for storage in storage units of the distributed storage network.