I have a question about partitions, does it reserve a physical space on the hard drive or does it only reserve an amount of space. The idea being that I can create two partitions on my MBP, one that is small, and created first so that everything on it occupies the faster outer part of the drive. On this I would place my software. Then a second, larger partition to keep my huge photo library.
According to diglloyd the above is true, the first partition physically resides on the outer part of the drive and is also useful as a scratch disk for photoshop. However, I cannot find anyone, including people at the apple store, that think that is true. A partition is virtual allocation of space so there would not necessarily be a performance advantage.
So does anyone know for sure if a partition is physical space or virtual space (if I am stating it correctly)? I just put in my 750GB Scorpio Black (quiet with slight, but noticeable, vibrations) and created two partitions. My photo library is almost 800Gb of which only about 500Gb or less would be on my MBP at any time (I want to keep much it on so I can trim it down in my spare time) If I would get a performance advantage by keeping all software, current and future, as well as scratch drives on the fast track then I will keep it. If not then, well I am not sure but it easier to remove than create. I do think that it would be easier to backup with separate partitions, CCC. I can use my old stock drive, 320GB as a clone for the applications partition. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.
According to diglloyd the above is true, the first partition physically resides on the outer part of the drive and is also useful as a scratch disk for photoshop. However, I cannot find anyone, including people at the apple store, that think that is true. A partition is virtual allocation of space so there would not necessarily be a performance advantage.
So does anyone know for sure if a partition is physical space or virtual space (if I am stating it correctly)? I just put in my 750GB Scorpio Black (quiet with slight, but noticeable, vibrations) and created two partitions. My photo library is almost 800Gb of which only about 500Gb or less would be on my MBP at any time (I want to keep much it on so I can trim it down in my spare time) If I would get a performance advantage by keeping all software, current and future, as well as scratch drives on the fast track then I will keep it. If not then, well I am not sure but it easier to remove than create. I do think that it would be easier to backup with separate partitions, CCC. I can use my old stock drive, 320GB as a clone for the applications partition. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.