Internal File Structure:
Definition and Explanation:
Files are generally stored on block devices where data is stored in blocks. These blocks can be hard drive sectors or some other logically defined entity. It means that the file as a stream of bytes may need to be subdivided into these blocks. The tables will need to be maintained to indicate which block belongs to what file.
There is also the problem of internal fragmentation. The parts of the last block can be wasted. Suppose the file size is 513 bytes. If we have blocks of size 512, we need at least 2 blocks to store the file with one block having only 1 byte. The other 511 bytes are wasted.
Increasing the block size reduces the size of tables that need to be maintained for the disk but it produces internal fragmentation.
