Slow transfer of files between partitions

T

tuffjam

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I've got a two month old PC that has an 80Gb Western Digital HD (7,200 RPM) that I have split into two 40Gb partitions.

I'm finding that if I'm transferring a big file from one partition to another it can take quite a while. For example a 700mb movie may take close to 2 minutes. Is this about right because it seems a bit long to me. Moving the file to a different location on the same partition is almost immediate.

Is there anything I can do to the system that might speed it up a bit?
 
Two minutes does sound a bit long. Please recognize though that when you move it from one partition to another you are actually moving the file, but when you "move" it within the same partition you are only moving the pointer - the file stays in place.
 
Sounds about normal to me moving a file that big. No big deal. Of course as allan said moving to the same partition is a goer if you want speed because it is not being moved.......just moved. :D
 
Sounds about right, between partitions is always slower than between two drives. Buy another hard drive ;) :D
 
Thanks guys. Your answers seem to be the general concencus when I've asked elswhere. I've not used partitions before but it's obviously just like having two physically seperate HDs so the transfer time makes sense.
 
Originally posted by tuffjam
I've not used partitions before but it's obviously just like having two physically seperate HDs so the transfer time makes sense.

When you copy/move files between two different drives, you can read from one drive at the same time you are writing to the other. Between partitions on the same drive is another story. The heads read from one partition, then write to the other, read from one, write to the other and so on until the data is all transferred.
 
Originally posted by OhmEye
When you copy/move files between two different drives, you can read from one drive at the same time you are writing to the other. Between partitions on the same drive is another story. The heads read from one partition, then write to the other, read from one, write to the other and so on until the data is all transferred.

Yeah, I was about to say something along those lines. It depends on a lot of factors (hard drive speed, seek time, IDE bus speed, fragmentation, etc.), but transferring between partitions is often much slower than transferring between drives. Keep in mind, however, that two fast drives sharing one IDE channel may also hit a bottleneck when you're maxing out the bus, effectively splitting your IDE bandwidth in half.
 
Originally posted by Gnu


Yeah, I was about to say something along those lines. It depends on a lot of factors (hard drive speed, seek time, IDE bus speed, fragmentation, etc.), but transferring between partitions is often much slower than transferring between drives. Keep in mind, however, that two fast drives sharing one IDE channel may also hit a bottleneck when you're maxing out the bus, effectively splitting your IDE bandwidth in half.

tehe, I almost said something like that, too, Gnu!

Ideal situation is transferring between two physical drives on separate IDE channels.
 

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