Spinning Disk Drives – Not Ready for the Pasture Yet

Robin Harris, an infrequent, but important, contributor to ZDNet put up a piece today that clarifies for many some things that I learned long ago, and make use of each time I set up a computer.

Yet, for many, I must justify my actions, and give them a quick class in things I feel they should know. (I have always had all the time in the world for people willing to learn, and, if approached in that manner, I will explain until the ideas and points are crystal clear. On the other hand, if I am taken on by someone who wishes to argue a point with knowledge of the facts, I get irritable quickly – it is amazing how many think they know the facts.)

Mr. Harris speaks of the size of drives, and why those who might not need their capacity would otherwise want them for their ultimate speed. To know this, you must think a bit, and not simply glance at specifications that the manufacturers give. Things like areal density, sector counts, and drive geometry are not things that are part of those “important specifications” usually revealed.

Also explained is the fact that Solid State Drives are good for some things, but not really above average on others.  (You would be surprised how many people believe that the best thing they could do, after the barrier of monetary concerns is removed, would be to buy a few SSDs to run their system. Telling them of the possibility of sudden failure, with no notice, seems to do nothing to dampen their enthusiasm, for the mainstream computer press has proclaimed that SSDs are better…period. Wrong.)

Mr. Harris tells of the 500GB Seagate notebook drive that will outperform the best SSD for many things, at a fraction of the cost.

The part I was most pleased to see, is the part that is alluded to in the main article, but not mentioned specifically until a response to a reader’s comment.

The reader asked (in a less than kind manner) how to assure that a person could obtain the best performance on a drive by using the fastest parts of it ( the outermost sectors) -

#1 – That’s how your drive loads itself. If you start with a newly formatted drive your OS will take the fastest piece. After that install the big important apps you do use, such as Office or Halo. Then the less used large apps and so on, which might include video editing. Save iTunes for last, since audio files don’t need much in the way of performance.

Over time as your disk fills it will still slow down. But your carefully installed important apps will continue to load as fast as they can.

#2 – Partition your drive. The first partition will be the fastest and that’s where you put your OS and apps. I think this is more difficult on Windows than OS X, so I prefer method #1.

Robin

You simply don’t know how many times I have had to explain to someone, after I have resurrected their destroyed system for them, why I partitioned their drive. I usually ask if what I have otherwise done displeases them (including the newly found speed). The reply is always in the dispositive, to which I then add, “Then why complain?”

People are so worried about the small trouble of keeping track of one or two more drive letters, when, in most cases, I have done several things for them – all of which are good.

By partitioning, the OS is on the fastest section of the drive (usually – there are a few exceptions), and by putting data on a separate partition, should the program  or OS get hammered, the data is secure. (Big bonus!)

Also, I usually go to the extra effort and place the swap file at the beginning of the drive, and do the work to make it stay the same size, which keeps it from slowing the machine as Windows grows or shrinks the space. People have many beliefs about the swap file, most of them emanating about the many stories that were passed around during the time of Windows 3.1. I took time to learn what worked way back then, and it still works today. It makes a difference, no matter the speed of the machine or the drive. Doing this makes the machine faster.

Sometimes the old ways are best, and sometimes the newest technology is not.

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No magic in there, but still some magic in knowing how to fill it properly.

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