My computer (will primarily be used for gaming) only has one hard drive. I want to partition the drive for optimal speed.
My understanding of hard drives:
Hard drives are written from the outside in, and are fastest when dealing with data on the outermost rings.
Given this, I am thinking of using 3 partitions, each with a different speed priority. First would be for Vista and core apps, second for games, third for data (mp3s, videos, etc).
So... I have a couple questions stemming from that idea.
1. By using partitions, can I force where (outer, mid, or inner rings) on a drive data will be written, regardless of when I add data to the drive? I.e. if I add data to partition 3, will this data be written to the innermost rings, even if it's the first thing I do after installing Vista to partition 1? If I then install games to partition 2, will they be written to the middle rings?
2. The performance difference of a drive between its outer and inner rings shows up in testing, but is the speed difference really something that I would actually notice, compared to if I didn't partition the drive at all, and I might have a game installed on the innermost rings after I've had the drive awhile and it's getting full?
One final question:
If I were to get a second drive (not in RAID), and only install Vista and apps on it (no games), would I notice a speed increase when gaming, as compared to having a single drive, with or without partitions as described above?
My understanding of hard drives:
Hard drives are written from the outside in, and are fastest when dealing with data on the outermost rings.
Given this, I am thinking of using 3 partitions, each with a different speed priority. First would be for Vista and core apps, second for games, third for data (mp3s, videos, etc).
So... I have a couple questions stemming from that idea.
1. By using partitions, can I force where (outer, mid, or inner rings) on a drive data will be written, regardless of when I add data to the drive? I.e. if I add data to partition 3, will this data be written to the innermost rings, even if it's the first thing I do after installing Vista to partition 1? If I then install games to partition 2, will they be written to the middle rings?
2. The performance difference of a drive between its outer and inner rings shows up in testing, but is the speed difference really something that I would actually notice, compared to if I didn't partition the drive at all, and I might have a game installed on the innermost rings after I've had the drive awhile and it's getting full?
One final question:
If I were to get a second drive (not in RAID), and only install Vista and apps on it (no games), would I notice a speed increase when gaming, as compared to having a single drive, with or without partitions as described above?
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