Adjustment of free storage capacity for improved usage

摘要

The free capacity of a storage device associated with an information processing apparatus is altered so that an application program running on the information processing apparatus and using the storage device may more accurately utilize the free capacity. The free capacity is altered either by (i) storing a dummy file on the storage device of appropriate size to create the new free capacity, or (ii) calculating the new free capacity and reporting the new free capacity to the application program. The free capacity is altered when the free capacity is greater than a first multiple of a predetermined capacity by a first offset value. The new free capacity is calculated by adding to a second multiple of the predetermined capacity a second offset value greater than the first offset value and smaller than the predetermined capacity. The first multiple is greater than the second multiple so that the created free capacity is always less than the original free capacity.