A computing device of a storage network includes a network interface, memory and a processing module operably coupled to the memory and the network interface, with the processing module configured to execute the operational instructions to receive a storage request for a data file and then determine a data type for the data file. Based on the data type, the computing device determines whether to partition the data file into variable-sized data blocks and in response to a determination to do so, partitions the datafile according to a partition function into a plurality of data blocks, encodes each data block according to a dispersed storage error coded function to produce a plurality of data fragments and facilitates storage of the plurality of data fragments in a plurality of storage network nodes.