on a hard disk, fragmentation slows down file accesses. does fragmentation have effect on flash memory too?

Question

what i mean to say is that for a hard disk the access times are different for different portions of hard disk, and hence depending upon the locations of individual fragments of a file the total read time of a file is decided [because the read head has to move here and there]. but i believe that in case of flash memory, the access time of any section is same since it is solid state with no moving part. hence i believe that fragmentation should not be having effect on flash memory

Answer 1

Yes I believe you are right. I just asked another colleague here at work. It uses transistors on the USB machine so you are right has the same access time. Any solid state of data is easier to read from so you do not run into any issues with slow access of file fragments

Answer 2

from the mechanical point of view it should not have any effect.

while theoritically, since files are fragmented, we might take up some time in sorting file fragments which would utilize the CPU and memory

but i believe this would be something for extremly big files on extremly big flash memories with extreme fragmentation, i dont think such thing is valid in today's flash memories less than a 10 GB

only an openion

Answer 3

Fragmentation would occur because it is a function of the file system not of the hardware.

Solid state simply means no moving parts not that there is only one part. Flash memory works on gates so it still have to modify each gate in order to store memory.

Answer 4

It will to a certain degree. You need to consider that when you load data to it, it places the data in every available free slot or bit the same as it would on any other storage device. The time it takes to find the data is a lot faster than a magnetic storaged device but the same principles apply. It probably wouldnt be noticeable in a fash drive unless you had a drive that was huge!

Answer 5

You are wright, no effect at all.