Does the drive need to be de-fragmented?
No. The HD24’s file system essentially de-fragments itself as it records. The “cluster size” of the Alesis file system is much larger than other disk file systems, so files are easier to find. In addition, all tracks for a given song are saved in adjacent sectors, not scattered in 24 different locations. The end result? No matter how many songs you load on a disk, or how many overdubs and edits you make, the drive never gets fragmented enough to affect performance. It’s important to note that the ADAT HD24’s file system is NOT the same as “tape mode” in some other hard disk recorders, which may erase songs following it on the drive. The ADAT/FST does
not permanently assign a given length of time in a particular song to any sector of the drive. It is still random-access; it’s just not as scattered as other disk formats.
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