MultiMente unusually slow directory load

Expert (65)

06-03-2022, 12:56

Hey

I arranged my roms into alphabetical directories to make them possible to browse with MM, but a weird thing happened: the root rom directory with just the 25 directories under it (0 and A-Z) takes 18 seconds to load on my FS-A1FX. Any idea what's up?

BTW, it took me this long to realize how powerful MM is, because there isn't much documentation (that I know of)... but I finally just stumbled on features like auto-switching to Basic when needed :-) Is there actually comprehensive documentation somewhere?

Por Parn

Paladin (854)

06-03-2022, 15:03

I may be completely off the mark here, but by any chance have you copied all those ROMs to the same directory and them reorganized them into subdirectories? If you did that, maybe the directory is still occupying the same space as when it had all the ROMs in it, and it is taking longer for your MSX to process it in its entirety. You could try creating another empty directory and moving the subdirectories there to see if it gets any better.

Por sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4291)

06-03-2022, 17:03

Ah smart, yeah the “deleted” entries might take processing time…

Por Manuel

Ascended (19678)

06-03-2022, 18:14

Just copy them to a backup dir/drive and then back and everything is more optimized

Por Stakker

Expert (65)

06-03-2022, 19:26

Yes, that is exactly what I did and just copying them to a new folder fixed it. Thank you! :-)

I'm curious, is this just what happens when you have a Z80 and what ever bus speed running FAT, or something to do with the MSX filesystem implementation?

Por Parn

Paladin (854)

06-03-2022, 21:16

It may depend on a few factors, which can pile up and make everything slower. For example, if you do a lot of file operations in the same directory, its entry in the file system will likely become fragmented. And if you deleted many files, many of those fragments will not have any valid entries, so you're just wasting time jumping back and forth inside the file system without reading anything useful.

Por gdx

Enlighted (6429)

07-03-2022, 00:45

Displaying all 25 folders should take less than 2 seconds. Your FAT may be corrupted. I recommend to backup all dirs and files to your PC, format the flash card, then back the all. Also avoid long names.

How much memory do you have? It is preferable to have minimum 256kB.

Note that it's faster when you disable the displaying folders content of the right frame for tree.

Stakker wrote:

BTW, it took me this long to realize how powerful MM is, because there isn't much documentation (that I know of)...

The documentation is very complet.

Download link: MMv2.07Aplus-RC4.zip

Por Stakker

Expert (65)

07-03-2022, 11:13

Ok… I better do the backup & format to be sure. 64k internal RAM, but additionally MFRSCC+ with 512k. (Not sure if it’s as fast as internal RAM, but I assume so?) Many newer files still have long names, but I’m working on it… (I’m not aware of a ROM renamer for Mac, so doing it manually.) Thank you for the help and also the MM docs!

BTW, I’m guessing you’re the same gdx, so do you mind if I ask what the difference is between the Konami Game Collection SCC and ”GDX SCC” versions of old Konami games?

Por Parn

Paladin (854)

07-03-2022, 15:38

Long file names in a MSX file system (like FAT12 or FAT16) occupy extra directory space, which is ignored by MSX-DOS but also has to be processed somehow. Due to the way those are stored, using extra invisible directory entries, depending on the file name's length it can quickly inflate the directory space up to 20 times its original size. If the directory is fragmented (which in your case it probably is) that will also add up. I would recommend you to reoptimize everything after renaming, to get rid of those unused LFN and deleted file name entries.

Por Stakker

Expert (65)

09-03-2022, 10:07

Yeah that makes sense, cheers!

Por gdx

Enlighted (6429)

10-03-2022, 13:51

To rename your ROMS, use MSX ROM Librarian !
https://www.msx.org/news/en/msx-rom-librarian-released
Don't manipulate long file names with your MSX system, and you won't have a problem.

About internal RAM, it's not faster except on MSX Turbo R. On other machines, internal or external, it's the same.