In a method for storing packets in a network device, a memory space spanning a plurality of external memory devices is partitioned into a plurality of multi-buffers. Each multi-buffer spans multiple memory devices in the plurality of external memory devices. Each multi-buffer is partitioned into a plurality of buffer chunks and the plurality of buffer chunks are distributed among the multiple memory devices Further, a packet is divided into one or more packet chunks including at least a first packet chunk. The one or more packet chunks are stored in one or more consecutive buffer chunks of at least a first multi-buffer of the plurality of multi-buffers.