VMS Help EXCHANGE, COPY, Qualifiers, /CONTIGUOUS  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

       /CONTIGUOUS
       /NOCONTIGUOUS

    Indicates whether the copied file is to be contiguous; that is,
    stored on consecutive physical blocks on an output disk volume.
    The /CONTIGUOUS qualifier is valid only for Files-11 output
    files.

    The /CONTIGUOUS qualifier has no effect when you copy files to
    magnetic tape volumes. When you would like a file from a magnetic
    tape to be copied contiguously, use both the /ALLOCATION and
    /CONTIGUOUS qualifiers because the size of the file on magnetic
    tape cannot be determined until after it is copied to the disk.
    If you do not know the exact size of the file, overestimate the
    size and specify the /TRUNCATE qualifier (along with /ALLOCATION
    and /CONTIGUOUS) to avoid wasted space.

    The default is /NOCONTIGUOUS.