Hard disk platters and allocation space for page file in Win Xp?

[cascade]

I came across computer magazines regarding reduction of fragmentation of a
hard disk is to allocate a separate partition to it, say 1G. And some of the
magazines claim that in order to increase the performance of read/write of a
hard disk is to allocate that page file into separate physical hard disk
other than the OS is installed with the idea of separate use of the
read/write head of the respective physical hard disk. Correct?

Some of the hard disks anatomy:

20G hard disk consists of single platter bearing 20G capacity.
40G hard disk consists of double platters bearing 20G capacity each (to be
analysed).

If you have just a single hard disk (40G), you still can increase the
performance of read/write of the hard disk by ensuring allocation of page
file into a different platter other than the OS is installed through
partitioning because each platter consists of its own read/write head, hence
now, a single hard disk can perform as if there are two physical hard disk.
Correct?

If I'm correct, then how am I suppose to determine or sure that the page
file is allocated onto different platter other than the OS is installed
through partitioning on this 40G encompasses 2 platters???

Thank you for reading.

 

[Sharon F]

Responses in line:

I came across computer magazines regarding reduction of fragmentation of a
hard disk is to allocate a separate partition to it, say 1G. And some of the
magazines claim that in order to increase the performance of read/write of a
hard disk is to allocate that page file into separate physical hard disk
other than the OS is installed with the idea of separate use of the
read/write head of the respective physical hard disk. Correct?

"It" being the pagefile? While using a separate partition [on a separate
drive] for the pagefile is theoretically correct, any performance
increase will not be noticeable.

Creating a set maximum for the pagefile can be dicey business. You can pick
a maximum that is good for most operations but what happens when you
start an exceptionally large project and the upper limit is reached? A 500 MB
image file can grow 10 times or more during editing. My choice when
weighing the risk of data loss against a bit of fragmentation will go in the
favor of protecting the data.

Some of the hard disks anatomy:
20G hard disk consists of single platter bearing 20G capacity.
40G hard disk consists of double platters bearing 20G capacity each (to be
analysed).

If you have just a single hard disk (40G), you still can increase the
performance of read/write of the hard disk by ensuring allocation of page
file into a different platter other than the OS is installed through
partitioning because each platter consists of its own read/write head, hence
now, a single hard disk can perform as if there are two physical hard disk.
Correct?

If I'm correct, then how am I suppose to determine or sure that the page
file is allocated onto different platter other than the OS is installed
through partitioning on this 40G encompasses 2 platters???

Thank you for reading.

Since there's no way to insure the placement, this bit of trivia sounds
good but is not helpful. Sorry.

A good dissertation about memory management and the pagefile can be found
here:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Personally, I keep a small pagefile on C: and a use a second hard drive for
the main pagefile. Rarely get notices about the pagefile enlarging but
have seen it a few times while working on image.

 

[Norm]

Disks don't work like that. While each platter obviously has to have it's
own head, all heads move at the same time, using the same servo mechanism.
Data is not written on platter 1, then platter 2, etc. Data is written on
platter 1, all the way around the disk and then on platter 2 all the way
around for cylinder 1. Then the heads reposition to the 2nd cylinder and
away we go again. So there is no way to partition a disk, picking
individual disk platters.