FLASHROM
Page 284 CD3000XL OperatorÕs Manual
ARRANGING THE FLASHROM
It is also possible to arrange the memory on the FlashROM board(s). However, the arrange is
somewhat different from that of a disk.
If you have used the FlashROM a lot and have deleted data from it and/or re-written new data to
it, what happens is that the memory gets broken up and you have unusable gaps throughout
the FlashROM’s memory area. This is known as ‘fragmentation’. Data needs to be saved in one
block to the FlashROM (known as ‘contiguously) and what can happen is that if there are lots of
gaps in the memory area, even though these gaps may all add up to a fair bit of free memory,
because the gaps are scattered around the memory area, data cannot be stored contiguously
to it. To overcome this, you can use the ARRANGE function. This process will move all data up
the memory area, closing gaps and leaving one contiguous block of memory where data can be
written to. Confused? Please see the following diagram!
1Meg gap
1Meg gap
1Meg free
2Meg used
2Meg used
1Meg used
2Meg used
2Meg used
1Meg used
3Meg free
BEFORE
ARRANGE AFTER
ARRANGE
As you can see, there are 2 x 1Meg gaps in the memory area that have been created by
deleting data from the FlashROM and although 3Mbytes of space is available, only 1Meg is
actually free. Using ARRANGE will shunt the used memory up, freeing up 3Meg of contiguous
memory to be used.
The ARRANGE process is non-destructive and will not affect data in any way - all it does is
shuffle data around the memory area to make contiguous memory available. It is worth doing an
ARRANGE from time to time, especially if you delete a lot of sample data from the FlashROM.
*** WARNING ***
NEVER SWITCH OFF THE SAMPLER DURING ARRANGE.
THE FORMAT WILL BE DAMAGED AND THE DATA CANNOT BE RETRIEVED.
NOTE: The ARRANGE takes time. It takes about 10 minutes or so with 8Mb FlashROM.
NOTE: When the data is saved on FlashROM with [WIPE], the sampler actually saves it on an
unused area instead of erasing and arranging the memory in order to save time. However, if
save with [WIPE] is repeated and the FlashROM becomes full, the sampler performs the
arrange function automatically. This will take about 10 minutes or so. DO NOT turn the unit off
until arrange and save is finished.
NOTE: If you delete a lot of programs from FlashROM, ARRANGE is not strictly necessary as
these take up such little space. It’s when you delete large sample data that this fragmentation
problem will arise.