windows A quick question about Hard drives

[ajnl]

I heard that if you partition your hard drive (2-4 partitions) inside your computer and install programs/games on each partition, your computer will run faster then if you had just one partition with all the programs/games on there.

 

Is that true?

[detoren]

nope not rlly

 

you need 2 hard drives and run them in raid 0 than the computer see the 2 drives as one and will wright and read 2 times faster .

[TwoCrows]

I heard that if you partition your hard drive (2-4 partitions) inside your computer and install programs/games on each partition, your computer will run faster then if you had just one partition with all the programs/games on there.

 

Is that true?

 

Welllll.....In that specific example, it is completely not true, because it is on the same spindle...the same physical drive...

 

The drive head can only be in one place at a time, so if it's reading a cache for the O/S, its not reading game data.

 

You get an apparent (and in some cases, its only apparent, not real) boost by using an array of drives because data is striped across multiple physical drives. This allows more data to be read quicker...Some things however do not benefit from this at all...BUT, some things do.

 

The boost is not linear, that is if you have 2 drives it wont be 2x as fast, and if you have 3 it wont be 3x as fast, etc...When you look at actual performance metrics from various tools and benchmarks, depending on what you are doing, you will see varying degrees of improvement...30%...15%...50%...etc.

 

Partitioning a single physical drive into multiple logical segments only tells the O/S that you have several distinct boundaries of storage.

 

 

Some of the things that can have a positive performance impact in terms of hard-drives :

 

1) Configuring windows to write its cache file to a different drive than the system drive.

2) Using a system drive that is "right-sized". Don't get a 500 gig drive for your "boot" drive, if the maximum installed size of the O/S is 50 gigs. Store only the O/S on your system drive and maybe critical O/S patches.

3) Defrag, defrag, defrag.

4) If you are not concerned about restoring from a backup like Ghost, or DriveImage, a RAID 0 array for your system drive can increase performance.

5) The above point can be true for your application/game drive. A RAID 0 array CAN (can, not will) improve performance of some apps/games.

Edited April 13, 2010 by TwoCrows

[ajnl]

nope not rlly

 

you need 2 hard drives and run them in raid 0 than the computer see the 2 drives as one and will wright and read 2 times faster .

 

 

Welllll.....In that specific example, it is completely not true, because it is on the same spindle...the same physical drive...

 

The drive head can only be in one place at a time, so if it's reading a cache for the O/S, its not reading game data.

 

You get an apparent (and in some cases, its only apparent, not real) boost by using an array of drives because data is striped across multiple physical drives. This allows more data to be read quicker...Some things however do not benefit from this at all...BUT, some things do.

 

The boost is not linear, that is if you have 2 drives it wont be 2x as fast, and if you have 3 it wont be 3x as fast, etc...When you look at actual performance metrics from various tools and benchmarks, depending on what you are doing, you will see varying degrees of improvement...30%...15%...50%...etc.

 

Partitioning a single physical drive into multiple logical segments only tells the O/S that you have several distinct boundaries of storage.

 

 

Awesome, thx for the info and for the fast reply.

[ajnl]

I've also heard that defragging your HD too many times is bad as well. And that you should only do it twice a month.

[Desu]

I've also heard that defragging your HD too many times is bad as well. And that you should only do it twice a month.

 

some say once every 3 month.

but yeah, it depends.

but its definitely true that you shouldnt do it too much

[TwoCrows]

I've also heard that defragging your HD too many times is bad as well. And that you should only do it twice a month.

 

There is no problem physically with defragging a hard drive. It doesnt do anything that does not already happen from reading/writing data. You could do it 100 times a day and have no effect on the drive from a mechanical or systemic(the drive as a unit) perspective.

 

Some folks make the case for data loss or errors when moving files during defrag but the problem with that argument is it is no different than you moving files around yourself with cut-n-paste. When you cut-n-paste a file to a new folder, it is moved to a totally new set of sectors on the drive. When defrag does it, it just happens to put them in a certain order.

 

In fact, if this were a real problem, you would see it a lot more often simply by turning the computer on and doing just about anything...clicking anywhere, opening a browser link, etc. Almost every action you take results in some kind cache hit or memory page change/lookup/etc, or disk access; Remember, your HD is used to hold the "Page file" as extra memory.

 

Long ago, in the deep dark days of early computers, EVERYTHING in the system was far far more error prone than today and the idea of defragging too often/etc would have had a lot more actual reasoning and observable fact behind it.

 

There is also the argument for "immovable files", such as the swap file. This really cant be moved while the computer is on, as it is always in use, always. Since it is all over the place, it can prevent the most advantageous groupings of files because it is splattered all about. Some programs take this into account and run another swipe at a defrag before the GUI of the O/S loads.

 

Lastly, it is the law of diminishing returns. If you defrag every week, you probably won't see the same bang for your buck as when you do it over a longer span, there just isnt a lot of fragmentation...UNLESS...you delete things often or have a lot of things being installed/un-installed in short order.

 

You will spend more time watching those nifty little blocks moving around during the defrag than doing something useful, like running someone over with a tank...then backing over them again....and again...

[detoren]

Download hd tune to see the condition of your disc and also see the speed to compare my raptor does 85 my raptors in raid 0 do 135 my ssd does 230 a normal disc shoold do 60.

 

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html dl the hdtune 255 exe .

[ultraman]

Well said TwoCrows, couldnt have said it better myself. Your a wiz...

[ajnl]

Awesome guys, thx for everything!

[Term!n@tor]

nice info by twocrows

[TwoCrows]

Well said TwoCrows, couldnt have said it better myself. Your a wiz...

 

Hehe, thanks. I have a long background in electronics theory/engineering and hardware repair, down to the component level (resistors, caps, etc)....So many traces, so little time....

[NoGooD]

Some folks make the case for data loss or errors when moving files during defrag but the problem with that argument is it is no different than you moving files around yourself with cut-n-paste. When you cut-n-paste a file to a new folder, it is moved to a totally new set of sectors on the drive. When defrag does it, it just happens to put them in a certain order.

 

Mmm..not to get OT, but it just reminded me of a time during a defrag for w/e reason my computer crashed while one of my secondary drives I was defragging was in the middle if it. I lost approx 80gig of data. After rebooting the drive showed no data being located on it. We're talking music, videos, pics of friends, family etc. Not to mention the porn....OOOOH man the porn. j/k

 

Seriously though, I had to do a bit-by-bit recovery (read LONG DAMN TIME) and got most of it back, although there were some weird things. For instance some of my MP3's would start out as say the podcast it was labled for, but mid way through it would turn into part of a song from another MP3, or maybe another 2-3 songs/podcasts.

 

Many of my pictures were corrupted..so only have the picture showed correctly and the other have was a bunch of blocky looking mix. All told I still lost about 20 gig of data.

 

I guess the moral of the story is..don't screw around with your computer while it's defragging. Someone compared it to holding a bunch of different colored confetti and trying to put all the colors back together in the same order. Basically my computer just tossed the confetti in the air in hopes of having it land in the right order.

 

Long ago, in the deep dark days of early computers, EVERYTHING in the system was far far more error prone than today and the idea of defragging too often/etc would have had a lot more actual reasoning and observable fact behind it.

 

There is also the argument for "immovable files", such as the swap file. This really cant be moved while the computer is on, as it is always in use, always. Since it is all over the place, it can prevent the most advantageous groupings of files because it is splattered all about. Some programs take this into account and run another swipe at a defrag before the GUI of the O/S loads.

 

Lastly, it is the law of diminishing returns. If you defrag every week, you probably won't see the same bang for your buck as when you do it over a longer span, there just isnt a lot of fragmentation...UNLESS...you delete things often or have a lot of things being installed/un-installed in short order.

 

You will spend more time watching those nifty little blocks moving around during the defrag than doing something useful, like running someone over with a tank...then backing over them again....and again...

 

quick ? for you then Two Crows since you probably have much more experience than I do. My understanding with standard HDD's is defragging to much places additional stress on the read/write heads, arm etc. Wouldn't this lead to a decreased life span if say you defragged say once a week vs once every 2-3 months?

 

 

@AJ_nl: If you tend to edit alot of video, then by all means defrag frequently. It's crazy how fast a drive becomes fragmented when editing/producing large video files. GL man.

[*Kiba*]

nvm wish i could delete posts lol

 

i would say defragging not that big of a deal it does not really do anything

 

i mean if you only put want you what on the pc and not a hole lot of porn like most do with pcs it all goes in who us the pc and what for what

 

gamers does not need to do a lot of defragging bc it a wast of time only files on the pc are from web browsing and gaming the only thing defragging does is delete those that are not in us

 

last say you have a file that has not been move or touched in 2 or 4 weeks going on how ever long the pc has put on it most are i would say 3 or 4 weeks if not touch becomes a unused file meaning that it could be come defragged aka delete ect ect you guys should know where i am going with this if you spent more then 3 or 2 year on a pc i had to take pc class in school and maid it tore high school

 

i know i had to take a pc class to get out of high school i don't no about the resent of you

 

there does that help dare

[daredevil]

Please add . and , in sentences... Your sentences are like the one in Chinese...