On Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 10:48:16AM +0100, Steve Harris wrote: > I dont think its that simple, theres not a linear mapping between the > sector numbers and the position on the disk, and in any case theres > multiple platters. Multiple platters no problem: for performance reasons sequential sectors are always read from all platters in one head position before moving the head. The mapping isn't plain linear, but it will follow a reasonably smooth head movement or disk cache "elevator" algorithms won't work optimally, nor will long sequential transfers. > Historically disk benchmarks used to show higher performance near the > "start" of the disk (low numbers I guess) Yes, so maybe I was wrong and the low numbers are at the edge and the high numbers in the middle. > Overall I'd say it doesnt matter too much, modern disk are fast enough Agreed :-) -- Anahata anahata@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx -+- http://www.treewind.co.uk Home: 01638 720444 Mob: 07976 263827
