| 摘要 |
<p>The present invention provides a method for selectively reclaiming fragmented space on a multiple volume cartridge (MVC) device using a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether making the fragmented space useable justifies moving all nonexpired data volume sets to another MVC. The present invention analyzes the allocation of space on the MVC (100) to determine the location and size of any gaps between nonexpired data volume sets. Any gaps appearing at the end of the MVC (102) are automatically reallocated for subsequent use (104). Any gaps appearing between nonexpired data volume sets are analyzed to determine whether the size and location meet predetermined criteria (108) before moving any of the nonexpired data volume sets. In addition, the present invention allows selective movement of less than all of the nonexpired data volume sets if the size of the separating gap is larger than any nonexpired data volume sets appearing after the gap.</p> |
