2 TB Storage HDD - How to partition for media?

alexb75

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Oct 12, 2004
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I just got a new Hitachi 2TB drive to use as my storage for my HTPC/File server (in addition to SSD as OS drive).

The drive is gotto have basically Documents, Pics, Music (lots of FLAC), and Movies.

Knowing the speed difference between inside/outside of the drive, HOW should I partition the drive to take the most advantage of speed? Not sure which media needs the higher speed? I wanna make sure I can easily search for pics/docs, easily navigate music and scan movies quickly.

I was thinking of something like this:

Partition 1 [500 GB]: Docs/Pics
Partition 2 [500 GB]: Music
Partition 3 [1 TB]: Movies

Thanks
 

danraies

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I'm not an "expert," but I do store a lot of files on my htpc/ftp server and I wouldn't use multiple partitions it at all. Just use a docs/pics folder, a music folder, and a movies folder. I'm not really sure why partitioning would increase performance.
 

alexb75

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Well, from what I've seen, if you dedicate the first partition to docs only, then NO document will be placed at the outer edges of the drive that has a lower transfer rate. So, ALL of the docs whenever stored will be stored on the FASTEST part of the disk drive.

Now, HOW MUCH of a difference that makes, I am not sure. But for instance, the Tomshardware test of 5K3000 3TB shows that it has 130 MB/s transfer at 0-100 GB position, while it DROPS to ~60MB/s at 2.8 GB position... which is HALF of the speed!

Look at this chart:

diagram-Hitachi-Deskstar-5k3000-HDS5C3030ALA630.png
 

danraies

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That's really interesting. From the numbers, though, they sound like seq read speeds which are less important than random 4k read speeds. Based on the logic of it all, though, I would believe a similar performance drop for random speeds, though.

I do know that 500GB would be a LOT of music.