partitioning hard drive improve system performance?

[kolix]

I'm not interested in partitioning my main hard drive,
but I hear partitioning around 20 to 30 GB of space for WinXP will improve its performance.
Is this true? If so, how much gain in performance? Or should I not bother?

 

[fattony]

no not really from my experience...sure it might take longer to become fragmented, but you won't see huge improvements, specially since it's not your primary, file read access may be a tad faster if you partition it since it doesn't have to search all the sectors/clusters on the partition, but also remember writes will be slower from volume to volume

 

[kolix]

thanks
I can only wish for a 20GB SATA II dedicated HDD for my OS

 

[randomcow]

I've heard that some people partition off the first 40GB or so of their HDD for OS/apps because access speed increases the further you go out on the platter.

Could be wrong and I don't even remeber where I heard it.

 

[kolix]

I just remembered about Gigabyte's IRAM
planning on getting their next gen version:
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,3979.html

I still think they are better off with a dedicated (external) power source than
using molex connectors.

thanks for your replies