Texas Instruments TI-84 PLUS SILV Guidebook - Page 348

Each variable that you archive is stored in the first empty block large enough to hold it. This process continues to the end of the last sector. Depending on the size of individual variables, the empty blocks may account for a significant amount of space. Garbage collection occurs when the variable you are archiving is larger than any empty block. How Unarchiving a Variable Affects the Process When you unarchive a variable, it is copied to RAM but it is not actually deleted from user data archive memory. Unarchived variables are "marked for deletion," meaning they will be deleted during the next garbage collection. variable A Sector 1 After you unarchive variables B and C, they continue to take up space. variable D Sector 2 Sector 3 If the MEMORY Screen Shows Enough Free Space Even if the MEMORY screen shows enough free space to archive a variable or store an application, you may still get a Garbage Collect? message or an ERR: ARCHIVE FULL message. When you unarchive a variable, the Archive free amount increases immediately, but the space is not actually available until after the next garbage collection. If the Archive free amount shows enough available space for your variable, there probably will be enough space to archive it after garbage collection (depending on the usability of any empty blocks). The Garbage Collection Process The garbage collection process: • Deletes unarchived variables from the user data archive. • Rearranges the remaining variables into consecutive blocks. variable A variable D Sector 1 Sector 2 Chapter 18: Memory and Variable Management 341