Hard drive fullness limits information help request

[Philip Hallstrom]

>> Hi all
>>   I know hard drives tend to not run well when near
>> full. They have trouble performing self adjustments
>> (hardware), self defragging(unix/FFS) etc.. (as I can
>> express it) However, I need to find some documentation
>> or some help in explaining this better.
>>   I am working with some people who store loads of
>> files, on many drives and tend to fill the drives to
>> 95% and more and then can't understand why they become
>> unstable.  I need to be able to explain it better and
>> I would also like to know more to be able to
>> factually/sanely set a percent full safe limit.
>> 
>>  Any help would be appreciatted
>> 
> Q: What happens when you fill a cabinet that is designed to hold 100 folders 
> with 95 folders, many of which are crammed full of papers?
>
> A: It gets much harder to put more folders in or to put more "stuff" in the 
> existing folders.  And papers start to stick out and catch on the top of the 
> drawer because they no longer fit.

And to add to that, when you realize you want to re-organize folder XYZ to 
make it "tidier", but you don't want to do it to the originals since they 
are important to you, where are you going to get the room to first make a 
a copy of the folder, then organize it, then replace the original once 
you've confirmed that you didn't leave any papers on the floor.  So you 
are stuck with an untidy XYS folder.  Yuck.

Probably not the most accurate analogy, but it's easy to understand...