"Closest to the edge"

[FlyingFinn]

Hello!
I have three partitions on my main HDD, C:\XP Pro/Cubase SX 2, D:\XP Pro Internet, and E:\data/storage. I also have a second HDD for audio/samples. I mainly use my machine for audio production and have been led to believe the OS closest to the edge of the HDD is slightly faster. The problem I have is that I have have 'lost' track of which of the three partitions (the order) is which. I can't go by the drive letters alone, because quite a while back the letters somehow were mixed up when I had problems whilst re-creating these partitions!
So, my question is; how can I determine which partition is actually the one closest to edge of the HDD??
I suspect I have Cubase OS installed on the partition furthest from the edge but am not at all sure.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!


Cheers, Mauri ;) .

[ringo2143z]

I'm not sure if it does it or not, but why not give Partition Magic a whirl. You can download a trial of v8 at: http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/pmdetails.cfm.

It seems to have been able to help me with most operations involving partitions in the past. Hope it helps

[CeeBee]

Go to Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management. You will be able to see the layout of your partitions together with drive letter assignments, unlike in Partition Magic or similar tools which don't tell you the drive letter for NTFS partitions.

[FlyingFinn]

Thanks for your replies guys.
Assuming data is written from the center towards the outside of the HDD (same as CDs), I installed the Cubase OS on the third partition (E) and it seems to be fine. Not sure if it made a difference but it was an interesting exercise, and the performance is certainly not worse.
I asked this question on 3 or 4 other forums but no-one actually gave me a definitive answer. Maybe no-one ever asked about this before ;) !
However, someone did tell me data is written to HDD starting from the center.

Cheers, Mauri :cool: .

[NooNoo]

Well alot is to do with your hard drive make and model
You see most new harddrives have multiple platters, your assumption that data is read faster from the outside is erroneous.

this is a fairly palin english explanation (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/tracks.htm), the more you understand, the more you will realise that you have no idea where one partition begins and ends physically on a "typical" hard drive.