FragDisk

FragDisk is a program for fragmenting the free regions in the FAT file systems on SD Memory Cards.

When an application is imported to an SD Card that is fragmented, the application also becomes fragmented.
By running the application in this state, you can check how it runs when it is fragmented.

The commands that are executed are displayed on the upper screen.
You can scroll through the command log that is displayed on the upper screen by moving the Circle Pad up and down.
You can clear the command log on the upper screen by pressing the X Button.

A user interface for selecting commands and configuring parameter settings is displayed on the lower screen.
IsSdmcInserted on the upper portion of the lower screen indicates whether an SD Card is inserted. (1 = SD Card inserted, 0 = No SD Card inserted)

Button	Operation
↑↓	Navigate menu
A	Select / Run
B	Back / Cancel

Configure the fragmentation parameters.

Button	Operation
↑↓	Navigate menu
X	Run
B	Cancel

The following items can be selected.

• SetDefaultParameters
• FreeRegion
• Fragment 32KB
• Fragment 64KB
• Fragment 128KB
• Fragment 256KB
• Fragment 512KB
• Fragment 1MB
• Fragment 2MB
• Fragment 4MB
• Fragment 8MB
• Fragment 16MB
• Fragment 32MB
• Fragment 64MB

SetDefaultParameters

Returns all parameters to their default values.
The following table contains the default values for each parameter.
These default values were set based on sample data extracted from an SD Card that was actually used with a CTR, and represent realistic usage conditions.

Item	Default
FreeRegion	100000 KB
Fragment 32KB	123 regions
Fragment 64KB	88 regions
Fragment 128KB	76 regions
Fragment 256KB	53 regions
Fragment 512KB	59 regions
Fragment 1MB	9 regions
Fragment 2MB	10 regions
Fragment 4MB	5 regions
Fragment 8MB	3 regions
Fragment 16MB	2 regions
Fragment 32MB	4 regions
Fragment 64MB	2 regions

FreeRegion

Enables you to set the size of the free region on the SD Memory Card.
After you select a value with the +Control Pad, confirm your setting with the B Button.
Ultimately, the size that you specify is rounded to the nearest multiple of 32 KB, and then used as the value for the size of the free region.

If the size of the free region is much larger than the size of the application to import, fragmenting the application is more difficult.
Setting the size of the free region as close as possible to the size of the application to import results in fragmentation that is closer to the specified fragmentation parameters.

Fragment 32KB-64MB

These parameters enable you to specify the size and number of the fragmented regions that are created during fragmentation.
After you select a value with the +Control Pad, confirm your setting with the B Button.
For example, selecting "Fragment 1MB: 10 regions" fragments the free space into 10 consecutive regions, each with a size of 1 MB.

Executes the fragmentation of the SD Card according to the parameters configured in Set Parameters.
The status of the fragmentation process is displayed on the upper screen.
After the fragmentation process is complete, "=== EndFragmentation ===" displays on the upper screen.

Button	Operation
A	Run

Specifically, the fragmentation process performs the following procedure.

1) A large number of files with names like "sdmc:/FragDisk/d0000XXXX/f0000YYYY" (XXXX, YYYY = sequential numbers) are created on the SD Card.
The files for which YYYY is an odd number are given a size of 1 byte.
For files for which YYYY is even, the file size is the value from 32 KB to 64 MB that is selected in Set Parameters.

2) Next, all of the even-numbered files are deleted.
At this point, the free region on the SD Card is fragmented according to the parameters configured in Set Parameters.

3) Dummy files with names like "sdmc:/dummy/dummyXXX" (XXX = sequential numbers) are created on the SD Card.
The total free region on the SD Card is adjusted to the value set for FreeRegion by adjusting the sizes of these dummy files.

Stops the fragmentation process.

Button	Operation
A	Stop fragmentation

You can defragment the free region in the FAT file system on the SD Card by reformatting the card, or by deleting the FragDisk folder in the root directory of the SD Card.

Applications imported from the CTR tend to fragment easily into small regions as you go further back in the storage region. Access performance gets increasingly worse as fragments become smaller.
As a result, the severity of the effect on access to files in the ROMFS archive changes depending on the location of those files.

Also, with regard to the relative positions of files in the ROMFS archive, the file names are exported in the build output .cci and .xml files in the order that they are located in the ROMFS archive.

・ If the free region on the SD Card is already fragmented prior to running the FragDisk program, the number of fragments specified in Set Parameters might not be created.
(There may be more fragments than the number specified.)
We recommend formatting SD Cards before you use the FragDisk tool.

・ If the total size of all the fragments is larger than the free space available on the SD Card prior to the fragmentation process, the number of fragments specified in Set Parameters might not be created.
(There may be fewer fragments than the number specified.)

・If the total size of all the fragments is larger than the size specified for FreeRegion, the number of fragments specified in Set Parameters might not be created. (The larger the size of the individual fragments, the farther the number of fragments that are actually created are below the specified number of fragments.)

2012/07/20

Initial version.