Why does *unused* second disk speed up XP Pro?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Oh wizards, I come seeking understanding, not task-based learning!

I heard about this, but didn't believe it until I tried it. I installed a
second hard drive and partitioned it. Without my doing anything else, Windows
XP Pro ran significantly faster.

All I can think of is that NTFS is making use of the second drive in some
beneficial way.

If confirmed, people should know that they need only buy a second cheap
drive to reap the benefits.
 
josh said:
Oh wizards, I come seeking understanding, not task-based learning!

I heard about this, but didn't believe it until I tried it. I
installed a second hard drive and partitioned it. Without my doing
anything else, Windows XP Pro ran significantly faster.

All I can think of is that NTFS is making use of the second drive
in some beneficial way.

If confirmed, people should know that they need only buy a second
cheap drive to reap the benefits.
Click to expand...

Never seen this to be true without further tweaking.

Now the files you access off that second driver may seem faster - because
the overhead on your first driver (like the pagefile, etc) is not
interfering with the other access of the second drive.

Some tweaking you can do is move the pagefile... Install your programs on
the second drive... Save you files there to make it easier to backup to your
external media.. etc.
 
Josh

What did actually put on the second drive?

Do the hard drives have the same read / write speeds?

Was the original hard drive ever formatted as FAT32 and later
converted to NTFS?

I would try HD Tune (freeware).and see how this tool reports the
performance of each.

Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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