Harddrive Defrag Strategy - Where is the outer spindle?

[Inthernet]

I run games on a laptop which frankly I shouldn't even be trying to run them with.

Now, I know that the outer spindle of the harddrive is the fastest in terms of data access and loading, and I want to use my disk defrag program to move the stuff there.

Now, defrag programs come with a drive map, and by default, they bunch up all the data at the top of the map when you run the defrag, leaving all the free space at the bottom. Does the top of the drive data map represent the outer spindle of the harddrive?

Once I know this, I can customise my defrag program to dump all the recently modified files where appropriate. Thanks in advance!

 

[RaiderJ]

I *think* most defrag programs by default move data to the outer portion of the spindle. For something more exotic, you could probably cache certain files in a RAM disk. After that, your best bet I'd think would be to do an SSD + HDD setup.

 

[Billb2]

Try Ultimate Defrag.

You can put anything anywhere, once you learn how.

http://www.disktrix.com/

 

[Russwinters]

Ultimate Defrag is the best.


Although it's circular design isn't 100% accurate as it only represents 1 side of a single platter, where your data is likely distributed throughout several platters (depending on the drive).



In other defrag programs usually the top represents the "outer" edges of the platters.


Or the left hand side represents the outer edge of the platters like in windows xp defrag.

 

[Inthernet]

Thanks for all the advice. This defragging stuff finally makes sense now and Ultimate Defrag is one awesome program!

 

[Nothinman]

The speed difference will most likely be negligible, you're much better of spending your time worrying about other things like figuring out how to get an SSD in that laptop.

 

[sub.mesa]

As Nothinman said.

 

[corkyg]

One minor point . . . the question is confusing. Hard drives only have one spindle. The spindle is the mechanical axis that the platters revolve around. The question is really about which tracks in terms of relationship or distance from the one and only spindle provide best performance. In that regard, it is as Nothinman said. 🙂