Creating multiple partitions on an SSD

louwin · 19 Mar 2012

If you create 2 partitions on a hard drive and copy a LARGE file from one partition to the other the copy is very slow with lots of head movement.

I wonder if there is the same overhead/concept with an SSD?

Yes I do realise an SSD is memory but I want to know if you partition an SSD and copy from one partition to the other is there a corresponding degradation? Considering interface turn around etc?

Or, in other words, if you copy from one partition of an SSD to another partition on the same SSD will it be as fast as copying from one SSD to another completely separate identical SSD?

Yes, again, I DO know it is memory

Kaktussoft · 19 Mar 2012

louwin said:

Or, in other words, if you copy from one partition of an SSD to another partition on the same SSD will it be as fast as copying from one SSD to another completely separate identical SSD?

Yes, again, I DO know it is memory

Of course 2 SSD's is the best. But not because of head movement. Just do a test. Overhead will be only few percent

louwin · 19 Mar 2012

I do have 2 SSD's but they are different speeds - OCZ Vertex 2 60Gb (285/275) and OCZ Agility 3 120Gb (550/525?) so I can't do the test I want

I suppose the question was theoretical

or hoping to get an answer from someone who has 2 identical SSDs

TVeblen · 19 Mar 2012

Speaking theoretically,
The SSD will transfer the large file from one partition to the other faster than the "spinner" because it is, um, faster.

Regardless of the speed of the drive, when you transfer the file from one partition to the other on the same physical drive the proccess is going to be: READ - stop - Write - stop. If you transferred the file from one physical drive to another the you could, theoretically, read and write at the same time.

The transfer would happen at near the maximum speed of the slowest of the two drives.

louwin · 19 Mar 2012

You missed a step....

Read stop move heads write stop move heads read stop etc etc

You still don't say (theoretically?) if copy from SSD partition to partition on same SSD is reasonably slower than copy from one SSD to another identical SSD?

GeneO · 19 Mar 2012

You can try it on the SSD, you don't need two partitions - the rate will be the same as copying the file to another filename on the same partition. This would not be true on a spinner, because by partitioning a spinner, you are starting the partitions on different cylinders of the drive, and transfer rate is dependent on where the cylinder is for HDD. So a local copy within a partition on a HDD would run at a different rate than a copy from one partition to different partition. This is not the case for an SSD.