Shortstroking hard drives... *gasp* A THG article actually worth reading... *shock*

Some basic questions:

1. Is short stroking via way of partition simply partitioning off the outer area of the platter of a disc(s) by making it the first partition?

2. When short stroking 2 discs in raid, can the remaining space be partitioned into a storage drive? 3

3. If (2) is possible, will the initial partition of the short stroked drive have faster performance than the second partition, even though both belong to the same set of physical HDD's?

Thank you much for your replies.
 
1) Yes
2) Yes, as long as it is not in use for general computing. I am going to keep the partition invisible to windows and use it for alternative OS. storing fully installed incl games image of os disk, ect.

3) Dont really understand the question.


Now I have a q guys, will the Raid controller on an ATI/AMD SB750 chipset do short stroking the same ways as discussed in thsi thread? People keep saying 'only if u have intel blahblah chipset'.
 
Malakai said:
2) Yes, as long as it is not in use for general computing. I am going to keep the partition invisible to windows and use it for alternative OS. storing fully installed incl games image of os disk, ect.
Click to expand...

Could I use this volume for storage but still access it from windows? I don't understand what you mean when you say it is not in use for general computing.

3) Dont really understand the question.
Click to expand...

Will the short-stroked area still see performance gains even though I use the remaining space for storage?
 
This is what I've done with my WD 640GB:

1st 50GB: Windows
Next 160GB: Programs
Last 430GB: TV Recordings

50GB Partition:

partitionbench.jpg


160GB Programs Partition:

partitionbench2.jpg


Now, I'm not sure if I've "done" anything because I access other parts of the drive at the same time, but I keep my Windows files near the front. :)

~Ibrahim~
 
CedricFP said:
Could I use this volume for storage but still access it from windows? I don't understand what you mean when you say it is not in use for general computing.

Will the short-stroked area still see performance gains even though I use the remaining space for storage?
Click to expand...

You need to visualize how this works and you will answer your own question. To improve the performance of your filesystem, you are only using lets say the outer 20% of each platter in the drive. If you have to access the other 80% of the drive, then the heads are moving all over the place again and you lose the performance gain. The point is to limit the drive heads to a small area on the outside of the disk for max performance.
 
Malakai said:
You need to visualize how this works and you will answer your own question. To improve the performance of your filesystem, you are only using lets say the outer 20% of each platter in the drive. If you have to access the other 80% of the drive, then the heads are moving all over the place again and you lose the performance gain. The point is to limit the drive heads to a small area on the outside of the disk for max performance.
Click to expand...

I understand.

Thanks very much for your help. :)
 
Never a problem! <3

I was talking to an IRL friend about this, and after I said "short stroking" out loud I felt dirty!
 
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