Inner track on fast drive or outer track on slower

[jfri 42]

I got a 150 Gb WD raptor SATAI as primary drive with Win XP FS9.1 and FSX. This drive is now filled about 2/3. I also use a Seagate 7200 rpm 250 Gb IDE drive which is hardly filled at all. That leads to the question where is the best place to put new stuff? Inner tracks on the fast 10000 rpm raptor or outer track on the slower 7200 rpm IDE drive? I'm for example thinking about megascenery titles.One somewhat strange result is the load time for Falcon Allied forceOn 60 Gb IDE maxtor 30 secondsOn 2*160 Gb WD raid 0 20 seconds (C:)On 150 Gb raptor 15 seconds (tracks in the niddle) (C:)On 250 Gb seagate IDE 10 seconds (outer tracks) (Raptor C: and IDE D:)Surprised me that it was faster on 7200 rpm IDE than a 10000 rpm raptor. Seems that which tracks used on the HD means a lot.There was another change in the system for the latest result. CPU upgraded to AMD 64 4000+ (from 3200+) RAM upgraded to 2 Gb (from 1 Gb and videocard upgraded to 7950GT from 6600GT. Maybe that too can influence disc speed access?

[Guest Nick_N]

This drive is now filled about 2/3.

thats the reasonAny drive even a Raptor will drop perf when it gets to that point and perf will drop like a rock as it fills moreYou are comparing a filled drive with a nearly empty, there will be a differenceThe old 1st gen Raptors are starting to lose a bit to the newer large platter drives from simple geometry and the size of the plattersI switch all my Raps to Vrap some time ago... they are silent and much fasterI do not use UD and simpy let O&O do the job of name defrag which places the data at the fastest geometric point on the drive at the same time.

[jfri 42]

thats the reasonAny drive even a Raptor will drop perf when it gets to that point and perf will drop like a rock as it fills moreYou are comparing a filled drive with a nearly empty, there will be a differenceThe old 1st gen Raptors are starting to lose a bit to the newer large platter drives from simple geometry and the size of the plattersI switch all my Raps to Vrap some time ago... they are silent and much fasterI do not use UD and simpy let O&O do the job of name defrag which places the data at the fastest geometric point on the drive at the same time.

Does this equally apply to all the content on the HD even stuff on the outer tracks? How can performence drop like rock just because the HD is filled more than 2/3? Actually now it's filled slightly less than 2/3. It would be more than 2/3 with megascenery so that sounds like a bad idea. In addition to Win and Fs I also got some other games and prohrams there maybe it would help moving that to the IDE?

[Guest Nick_N]

Does this equally apply to all the content on the HD even stuff on the outer tracks? How can performence drop like rock just because the HD is filled more than 2/3? Actually now it's filled slightly less than 2/3. It would be more than 2/3 with megascenery so that sounds like a bad idea. In addition to Win and Fs I also got some other games and prohrams there maybe it would help moving that to the IDE?

Because every time your hard drive is accessed for a file the head must seek the MFT as well as the file.. as the drive fills basic geometry starts to degrade performance because the head must seek further and further into the disk. It is a well established fact that as freespace decreases so does performance. Rule of thumb for (absolute) best drive perf is to maintain 50% freespace or right around that value. That can go a bit lower however once that 65-75% mark is hit, perf starts dropping fastThe larger platter drive with the same amount of data presents a considerably less access and seek operation time and therefore the perf will be betterThe larger Vraps and their internal design changes overcome the restrictions their 1st gen siblings present when pitted against the newer large platter drives on the market now.

[jbinner 15]

Nick, what do you recommend the settings then for Ultimate Defrag when used? I have been wondering which defrag "method" is BEST for FSX in Vista? Or is O&O the preferred program to defrag with?Thanks!

[Guest Nick_N]

Nick, what do you recommend the settings then for Ultimate Defrag when used? I have been wondering which defrag "method" is BEST for FSX in Vista? Or is O&O the preferred program to defrag with?Thanks!

I dont use UD and I find O&O does the job just fine without having to think about what needs to be moved whereAs far as I am concerned if the storage solution is a good one and correctly considered all that moving around of data to the outer edge of the track is quite needless, especially when FSX is on its own drive as it really should be anyway. FSX is always located at the beginning of the physical partition and the single FSX drive solution also presents other benefits as well.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Nick, what do you recommend the settings then for Ultimate Defrag when used? I have been wondering which defrag "method" is BEST for FSX in Vista? Or is O&O the preferred program to defrag with?Thanks!

For UD2008 you want to select the FSX/scenery files for "high performance"Then you want to run a defrag by Folder/File Name and clicking "respect high performance"