Partitioning hard drives - performance loss?

titaniumx3 · 11 Dec 2009 at 14:31

I've partitioned my hard drives in the past, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. For example, if I partition a 1TB drive into 2x500GB partitions, first for programs, the second for storage, will there be a performance loss on one partition?

As I understand things, reading/writing to the outside edge of the hard disk platters is faster than the inside, due to higher velocities on the outside edge. If I partition the drive as above, how will I know which is the faster partition? Naturally, I will want programs to be installed on the faster partition.

Or, am I just totally misinformed about this?

theron · 12 Dec 2009 at 14:02

your logic about the velocities makes sense to me, do you know how many platters your hdd has? if its 2x500 then surely windows should share it evenly between them anyway?

theron · 12 Dec 2009 at 15:00

googled: windows partition platter - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=windows+partition+platter&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

found this: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/282-63-creating-partition-specific-location-platter

You can't specify the physical location of a partition as such but the first partition (far-left in most software) will be at the begining of the drive.

And having a fairly small partition ensures that the data is contained on that small portion of the drive. A regular defrag also ensures that most of the data is pushed to the start of the partition and thus closer the the begining of the drive.

there are other links in the google search that u may wana check out.

MagicBoy · 12 Dec 2009 at 15:35

It doesn't partition per platter, as the multiple read heads are linked together. The first partition would have a higher sustained transfer rate than the partitions lower down the order.

titaniumx3 · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:04

I didn't like the idea of having one huge 1tb drive so I split it in half.

So would I be right in saying that on Disk 1, the partition Store_1 will have better speeds than Store_2?

Is there any way to test this, i.e. benchmark programs that can test individual partitions?

MagicBoy · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:20

titaniumx3 said:
So would I be right in saying that on Disk 1, the partition Store_1 will have better speeds than Store_2?

Yes.

Take the STR graph for your drive and cut it in half. Left half is Store_1, Right half is Store_2.

theron · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:20

i read someone say that hdtach can measure partitions seperately

titaniumx3 · 12 Dec 2009 at 16:30

Tried Crystal Disk Mark and these are the results:

I doubt I'll notice any difference under normal use, but it's nice to know partitioning does have some performance advantage!