Data Alignment - Akai DR4vr Operator's Manual

76
Chapter
10:
Hard
Disks
Data Alignment
The
data
alignment function enables
you
to
de-fragment the hard
disk.
When
the
second dot
from
the
left
on
the display remains constantly
lit, it
indicates that the
data
on
the
hard disk has
become
fragmented,
and
that
the
DR4vr
is
working too hard
to access data.
What
is
Data
Fragmentation?
When
you
make
a
recording onto
a
newly-fonnatted
or erased
disk,
data
is
written to the disk
in a
continuous
series
of
sectors.
During
playback,
the
disk drive does not
have
to
work
too
hard
to
read
the data,
because
it
is
in this
continuous
series
of
sectors.
However,
after
you
perform
many
edits,
the data will
be spread across numerous
sectors
on
the disk
—
in
other
words, fragmented.
In this
case, the disk drive will
have
to
work
harder
to retrieve
all
the data
necessary
for
continuous audio playback.
If
the
fragmentation
is
quite severe, the
second
dot
from
the
left
on
the display will
remain
constantly
lit.
You may
also notice
some
errors
during
playback.
The alignment
function
can be used
to
reorganize the data into a continuous
series
of
sectors.
To
align the data
and de-fragment
the
hard
disk:
1)
Press
the
SUB-MENU
key.
Its
indicator will
flash.
2)
Pr©ss th©
ALIGN
key.
RL
iGr>
will
appear on
the display.
3)
Press
the
STORE/ENT
key.
The message SUrE
??
will
appear
on
the display.
4)
If
you
ore
sure,
press the
STORE/ENT key again
to align
the
doto.
Note: Press
the
ESCAPE
key
at
any
time
to
cancel the
alignment
operation.
Data alignment
will take
some
time.
The
display screen
shows
the
countdown
of
the
alignment process
for
each
"path" as follows:
BL
I
tea J
Path
1
Path
2
Paths
RLE
0#
!!!J
#
!5 !5
When
these numljers count
MS
*3
tCfj
_l
down
to
000, the alignment
,
%m
^
q{
the path
is
complete.
• Path
1
In
this
path, the
alignment
function
will
remove
small
segments
that
tend
to
cause playback
errors.
This process remedies slow hard disk problems.
• Path 2
In
this
path, the alignment
function will
group
as
many
segments
as possible
to
reduce
their
number.
Also,
it
will
improve
the efficiency
of
the hard disk
and
increase available space. This
is
especially useful
when
there
is
extensive fragmentation and
the
DR4vr
is
unable
to
use
available space
effectively.
• Path
3
The
alignment
function
will collect the
unused
portions
of
the disk so
you can
use
the
space
more
effectively.
Version 4.0 12/95