Partition / Storage question

[Tanatz]

I'm an avid gamer. I'm interested in optimal performace for the hardware I have. That said:

Would it be faster to have a 40gb hard drive simply for the OS and games, and a ~300gb backup hard drive for all other programs / saved data files

-OR-

Buy one ~400gb hard drive, make a 100gb and a 300gb partition for the same purposes?

I have heard stories in the past that windows does not exactly treat two partitions on the same drive as it would treat two separate hard drives and that two partitions would actually be slightly slower, in terms of seek time, etc.

[dirtydr]

The second option would be faster. That old 40GB drive is far slower than a 400GB no matter how many times you partition it.

[TheDoucheMan]

If you want speed, get a 74gig raptor and a 300gig storage drive. It shouldn't be too much more money.

[Ice Czar]

the armature needs to move a considerable distance generally to access across two partitons you introduce considerable latency doing that depending on the IO que and its command queing ability

on the other hand the areal density of a 400GB HD is considerably greater than that of a 40GB HDD and the performance substantially better.

Id say make the 400GB the OS and games on the first partition
on a different channel use the 40GB for frequently accessed data
and put the infrequently accessed data at the back of the 400GB.

in reality your likely to be hard pressed to see the IO que depth youd need to appreciate the difference anyway

[Tanatz]

In other words, it doesn't really matter.


Anyway, I purchased:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

75gb for the OS and games
the rest for data

I really don't care how fast / slow the data on the 2nd partition is accessed. All I want is for the games to run as fast as possible.

Thanks for the help folks

[Ice Czar]

didnt quite say that
I wouldnt put the OS on the 40GB :p

put the OS and games on the first partition (OD outer diameter) of the largest and newest drive
there are 2 primary things that effect the performance, how fast it spins and how dense the data is moving under the head, data can be half as dense at twice the speed and you still get the same sustained transfer rate

of course the faster it spins the lower latency you get in case of the arm arriving just a little too late, the data will come back around again faster

well worth reading
http://www.lostcircuits.com/hdd/hdd2/
its quite a long series, but once youve read it
youll know more about HDDs than 99.9% of the population of the world :p

[gud4u]

This is pretty good read also :http://www.storagereview.com/guide/guide_index.html

Hope this helps!

[Tanatz]

didnt quite say that
I wouldnt put the OS on the 40GB :p

put the OS and games on the first partition (OD outer diameter) of the largest and newest drive
there are 2 primary things that effect the performance, how fast it spins and how dense the data is moving under the head, data can be half as dense at twice the speed and you still get the same sustained transfer rate

of course the faster it spins the lower latency you get in case of the arm arriving just a little too late, the data will come back around again faster

well worth reading
http://www.lostcircuits.com/hdd/hdd2/
its quite a long series, but once youve read it
youll know more about HDDs than 99.9% of the population of the world :p


No offense, but I understood about 6 words in that article :confused:

Nice and simple:

what do you think about my plan to take my 320gb hardrive listed above, and partition into two partitions - 70/250 - putting the OS and games on the 70gb partition, and putting data on the 250?

[Ice Czar]

good plan ;)

make both partitions primary

[Tanatz]

haha, thanks - you rock!


A final question, if you will:

I've used Linux fdisk before, which I find to be quite easy, I've also used Windows Fdisk, which I found not-so-easy.

Nothing wrong with simply using the Windows XP install CD to create partitions during the actual fresh install of the OS, right?

[Ice Czar]

best way for you to do it would be to create just the install partition to the right size from the CD

after your into the OS: Start > Run > (type) diskmgmt.msc > RClick the unallocated space and create the 2nd partition and format it ;)

make sure it has a blue border (primary, not the green border which denotes an extended partition dependent on the first primary) that way if the first partition is ever deleted you can just repartition tha space, reinstall and take ownership of the data on the 2nd partition

[Tanatz]

Will do all that once I actually receive my hardware from Newegg (which for some reason has been stuck on Step 1 for 2 days now :mad: )

Question:

Once the two primary partitions are created, I will have no problem reinstalling the OS the old fashioned way onto the first partition, correct?

i.e. Install Windows CD, reboot, delete OS partition, re-create the parition, install Windows on it.

The way I have it set up now, with two hard drives, I simply delete the entire first partition (which is my entire first hdd, the OS hdd), recreate the partition, then quick format it, then install the OS. Just wondering if it'd work the exact same way.

[Ice Czar]

no need to actually delete the partition, you can simply reinstall to it without deleting it

it will wipe all the old metedata (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archFiles-c.html) and overwrite the old install, deleting the partition is just an extra step and you arrive at the same place anyway, neither will erase whatever data is on partition, it will just overwrite it, but whatever isnt overwrittten has no pointer to it and is considered freespace that will in its own turn get overwritten

just pay close attention when ever your doing partitioning or installs with the CD you wouldnt want to do that to the wrong partition, however if you do (and the reason I explained the above) a direct sector scan will enable you to recover the data that hasnt been overwritten. Its basically just sitting there is plain sight but there is no longer an index or pointer structure to it.


In the event you ever have any issues with recognizing accessing or writing data on another partition or on a drive you have added, you just disable simple file sharing (http://www.winbookcorp.com/_technote/WBTA20000876.htm)
and
take ownership of a files and folders (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421) (at a partition level by starting at windows explorer > select the drive\partition > properties

make sure your listed with an explict permission and have full control (security tab) and in Advanced (button) youd want to check "Reset permissions on all child objects and enable propagation of inheritable permissions"

in the event some damn file or folder doesnt like the permissions you want to set on it, you can beat it up with CACLS from a commandline and if worse comes to worse for some unfathomable reason > I win (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1024158&highlight=supercacls) (i got into that little mess by going through my security checklist (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=768776) and being asleep at the wheel when I was tightening up the NTFS permissions (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1026517293#post1026517293) and failed to grant myself full control)

its worth learning about NTFS Permissions (http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/592/toc.html)

[Tanatz]

You're the man.

Thanks again.