In contiguous disk space allocation method, files are assigned to contiguous areas of secondary storage. A user specifies in advance the size of the area needed to hold a file to be created. If the desired amount of contiguous space is not available, the file cannot be created.
Two most common strategies are
- First fit
- Best fit.
1. First fit
In this case as soon as the first hole (that is big enough) is encountered, searching is stopped and memory is allocated for creating a file.
Searching can start either at the beginning of the set of holes or where the previous first-fit search ended.
2. Best fit
In this case the entire list is searched for and the smallest hole, that is big enough, is allocated for creating a file.