Abstract: A method and apparatus for storing data in a mass storage system implementing striped RAID technology by topological categorization and ordering of the data according to the topology of the storage areas. A mass storage system includes a mass storage space for storing data items of a plurality of data types. Each data item contains data of a corresponding data type and each data type is defined by the characteristics of the information represented by the data. The storage space is topologically organized as a plurality of basic units of storage space containing a predetermined number of data blocks of predetermined sizes. A data classifier categorizes each data item as a member of a data type and, for each data type, orders the data of the data items into one or more data block groups in a corresponding write buffer wherein each data block group corresponds to a basic unit of storage, and writes each data item into a corresponding data type area of the storage space.

Abstract: The storage space of a RAID striped mass storage system is topologically organized as a plurality of basic units of storage space for storing data items in data blocks. A topological data formatter includes a write data buffer for each data type and an initial data classifier initially categorizes each data item as a structured data type having defined data characteristics or a general data type having variable data characteristics and writes each structured data type data item into a corresponding type buffer. A topological data classifier topologically categorizes each general data type data item as a full-basic unit data type forming data blocks or as a partial-basic unit data type forming partial data blocks and writes each data item into corresponding full-basic type buffer or partial-basic type buffer.