---
title: "linked files"
type: concept
related: [Contiguous Allocation, Linked Files]
source: https://www.jemoka.com/posts/kbhlinked_files/
confidence: high
status: active
---

linked files is a linked list: in every block, it stores the location of the next block; we don&rsquo;t store files contiguously. We simply store a part of the file in a block, and a pointer to wherever the next block where the file is located is.
this solves the contiguous allocation&rsquo;s fragmentation problem.
problems massive seek time to get all the blocks for a given file: data scattered random access of files (&ldquo;find the middle&rdquo;) is hard: can&rsquo;t easily jump to an arbitrary location; we had to read the file from the start
