speedup the action of hard disk drive

[k_mohsen]

Hello
The current methods for speedup the performance of HDD are defragmenting, buying high speed HDD, buying a HDD with big amount of cash (8 or 16 MB).
I want to dispute other methods that some people say about and believe them.

Are these can speedup the performance of hard disk drive? (Searching, reading the directories tree, access time for files/folders and etc)
-   less number of drives ( large number of drives can reduce the performance of               HDD, for example C,D,E,F….L)
-   Big volume of each disk drive (e.g. 500GB for c:\  )
-   Creating partitions based on the number of cylinders and disks in HDD
-   Designing and tidying up files and folders somehow containing less files/folders in each subfolder.
Thanks

[Calum]

As far as I know the only way to speed up the actual drive would be to get a faster drive.  That's either faster in terms of rotation (10000rpm vs 7200rpm), or faster by design (for example higher platter density).
Defragmenting will reduce the access time for files or folders that are fragmented.  More free space can help, moving files and folders to the start (outside) of the drive also helps, as the outside is much faster to access than the inside.
Folders with less inside them should display quicker, but in the long run you won't save time.  Why?  Think about it, if you have a folder with 1000 files and you make 10 folders inside with 100 files in each, it'll take you twice the amount of time to navigate to the file you want.
Hope this helps.

[quaxo]

I could be wrong, but this is what I think:

-   less number of drives ( large number of drives can reduce the performance of               HDD, for example C,D,E,F….L)

Generally true. If all of those partitions are on the same hard drive, it can lead to a reduction in speed of reading/writing. For example, copying data from a C: partition to a D: partition on the same hard drive means the drive can't read and write at the same time, it has to stop one to do the other. On two separate drives not sharing an IDE cable, it normally can read and write at the same time.

-   Big volume of each disk drive (e.g. 500GB for c:\  )

If the question is does this make it perform any better, I don't believe so. Not that I've ever heard of anyway. Probably false.

-   Creating partitions based on the number of cylinders and disks in HDD

Again, another idea I've never heard of. Would probably have to say it's false.

-   Designing and tidying up files and folders somehow containing less files/folders in each subfolder.

Generally true. And defragmenting the hard drive regularly as well (especially after removing a lot of files) helps.

Other than that, everything Calum said which I won't bother repeating.

[Quantos]

I'll try to shed a bit more light on these for you.

-   less number of drives ( large number of drives can reduce the performance of               HDD, for example C,D,E,F….L)

The more drives in a system increases the odds of having one fail, that's just Murphy's Law.

-   Big volume of each disk drive (e.g. 500GB for c:\  )

The larger the hard disk the more data it can fit at the start of the drive.  The platter in a hard disk spins(probably obvious), so the outside portions of the platter actually spin faster than the inside portions.  That makes it faster to access and write data.

-   Creating partitions based on the number of cylinders and disks in HDD
-   Designing and tidying up files and folders somehow containing less files/folders in each subfolder.

That won't do a thing for your access speeds to the disk.  See the above explanation.

-   Designing and tidying up files and folders somehow containing less files/folders in each subfolder.

That won't do a thing for you, it will just make it harder to find what you are looking for.

[k_mohsen]

thanks to all, i learn more

-about "cylinders and disks" I see installations of Linux. for creating partition you can use volume ( 5000 MB) or use cylinders number ( 1 to 430). why this tool add in Linux? I think it's important

-about big volume for each drive. I see all notebook or laptop use only one drive (c:\ )
when the owner change the partition to two or more drive, the speed of laptop reduce.
and how it happen i don't know.

thanks

[Quantos]

You don't need to worry about cylinders and such if you're running a new BIOS, they detect that automatically now.

The reason that partitioning can slow down a HDD is that the second partition is not accessing the start or outside diameter of the platter.  My previous post explains why the start or outside diameter is faster.

[Kurtiskain]

There is one thing. Using C:/ Drive for everything can lead to slowdowns because it will have to keep accessing the windows swap file.

So if you keep windows on say a 40GB drive (not partition) and keep everything else on a secondary drive, on a different cable, eg; IDE 1 with windows drive on IDE 0, it will perform better.

[Quantos]

Exactly, the OS can be kept to the start(outside diameter) of the platter where the access is faster.  Depending on how religiously you keep the drive defragmented anyway.

[k_mohsen]

thanks to all
I dig it 

[patio]

Trying to squeeze an extra bit of speed out of the performance of a HDD is like measuring your life in nanoseconds....
It will take more time than you spend.

[Quantos]

Trying to squeeze an extra bit of speed out of the performance of a HDD is like measuring your life in nanoseconds....
It will take more time than you spend.

Isn't that the truth.

[BC_Programmer]

remember to store all your files in 4K increments to reduce slack space. if your files aren't multiple of 4K then manually copy the proper amount from other files. Just remember where you keep everything. For example, make sure you know that the first 3K of your new programs readme is at the end of the HOSTS file, and that the first 2K of the HOSTS file is at the end of SHELL32.dll.

It's hard to keep track of, and it's surely not worth the effort by any stretch of the imagination. But at least it gives you something to do.

[Quantos]

remember to store all your files in 4K increments to reduce slack space. if your files aren't multiple of 4K then manually copy the proper amount from other files. Just remember where you keep everything. For example, make sure you know that the first 3K of your new programs readme is at the end of the HOSTS file, and that the first 2K of the HOSTS file is at the end of SHELL32.dll.

It's hard to keep track of, and it's surely not worth the effort by any stretch of the imagination. But at least it gives you something to do.

Can you provide some more information on this?

[BC_Programmer]

NTFS uses a default cluster size of 4K... this is the smallest space that can be allocated to a file.

EDIT: try it- make a text file with one character; then save it and view the properties. "size on disk" will be the same as your cluster size. Mine, for example, is 16K, because my boot drive is FAT32.

[Quantos]

I know that, I meant on how to insure that you are using the full 4k and not just a portion of it.