Dave Howorth wrote:
Chadley Wilson wrote:
The reason for this is that unlike a cd the hard drive reads from the outside of the drive first where the speed is faster than the centre. Hence a speed advantage is gained, put your swap file there and you will see a noticeable difference.
Are you sure about this? The linear speed of the disk is certainly faster at the outside but the rotational speed is the same. Aren't there the same number of sectors around each track? So the sectors at the outside of the disk are physically bigger than those on the inside and a bigger linear speed is needed to read them in exactly the same time as the smaller sectors in the centre. Disks don't change their rotational speed depending on where the head is positioned, unlike some other devices.
It's common to divide a disk into zones, with outer zones having more sectors than inner zones. This means the data transfer rate will be greater for outer areas of the disk.