Hi Everyone!

I Hope all is allright with all of you!

I am back, and have some more questions about hard drives!:

My First, and, main question, is a straight forward one:

The Scenario is this one:

I have a NEW SATA Hard Drive, and, am wondering, in general, how to use it.

More specifically, I am thinking about "making" several "partitions to it".

I am aware of certain factors that can, or, might, have an effect on this Hard Drives performance, if I partition it.

For Example, I know, that, most likely (I don't say FOR SURE, just because I am not an expert on all of this, so I don't know ALL of it, ), making partitions will slow down access to the Hard Drive, because it will, probably, make the Read/Write Head move back/forth, more often.

I am sure there may be "several" other drawbacks, and, on the other side, some "benefits", to partitioning.

One Aspect, though, that I am especially "concerned"/interested about, though, is, if, and, WHAT influences it has on DISK LONGETIVITY. Obviously, with the "Head" moving back/forth more often, that would probably reduce the longetivity of the Drive by some amount.

Is this a big factor, OR, is it more "negligible". What do experts (such, as, probably, many of you are!) Say on this. What other factors can influence the longetivity of the disk if it is partitioned?

And, the other aspect I am curious about is: If the disk (which will hopefully not happen too soon, or, ONLY, IF have a back-up of it ) starts to fail, for some reason, does partitioning increase the chance of ONE partition being "more" recoverable than if the disk were "unpartitioned"? I realize this may, or may not, be an obvious question, BUT, I am just not an Expert enough, to say this, at the moment!

Obviously, there are several "scenarios" under "which" a disk can fail. Is there a difference in these scenarios, of the "recoverability" of the partitions, under these different scenarios?

I am thankful for any and all Answers, even if they are short, as I realize, most of you are probably pretty busy on other things as well!

What would be really great, is if ANYONE could provide resources of "learning" on HDD's in general.

What does one "need" to know, to at least get to start on understanding hard drives, and different benefits and/or risks of using them in certain ways.

I do have a fair amount of knowledge in Software and Development(and of course, computer science, information theory, etc), as well as basic Hardware Concepts, such as gates, logic boards, booleans, etc, and I also realize what some of the moving parts of the HDD are, . But I am interested in HOW I can get a FUNDAMENTAL knowledge of how Hard Drives work, and, what are the risks/benefits in managing them in certain ways, or others.

I am SURE, a lot of it comes with experience, but still, I am looking for resources out there to build a FUNDAMENTAL knowledge.


Thanks for taking your time, and thanks for all input, short or long!

Cheers!

c

A couple of ways to expand on hdd knowledge is to first look at the newbie section here on the forum under the board index. Then you can start searching online for white papers and other terminology and concepts as you begin coming across various topics.

Then you csn run some benchmark tests.

Regarding partitionong. A drive has to be partitioned in some way in order to store data. Now, more partitions vs. One partition? Depends on how the drive is used.

Generally speaking, an area on a drive will get deteriorated the more it is being used in that particular area. There could be random issues as well due to quality of the media. Needless to say, these are things one can't quite predict when and hiw will take place.

So, can you elaborate on "longevity"?

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

@hansaaa,

Just a couple of brief comments:


In typical (but not all) Windows usage, different partitions = different filesystems ("volumes" in Windows terminology). This can give some advantages and some disadvantages, due to having multiple filesystems depending on exactly how the PC and applications are being used, as labtech said.


Yes, there are differences in the effect that partitioning has on "recoverability". For example, for issues that affect a filesystem (volume), partitioning can help by limiting the damage / problem to one partition (filesystem); however that doesn't apply to issues that affect the whole drive, of course. There are other sys admin advantages (and disadvantages) to partitioning too.

Thanks, to you both, for your suggestions.

I will take a look at the suggestions you gave, labtech!

About longevity:

Well, what I mean, is: how long will the drive "last", i.e. how long will it function. Of course, there are, at least, several, factors that may have an influence on this, but, I am wondering, if, and, what, influences, partitioning has on the disk longevity.

As I said, I would GUESS that it may reduce longevity by a bit, since, for example, due to increased "movement" of the read/write "head", the "mechanical" wear/tear of the head may be increased. Other mechanical, and, maybe, other factors, may come into play as well, I would assume.

Anyway. Thanks!, for your answers, labtech, and Vulcan. I will consider the "high-level" knowledge you have given to me, as well as your ideas for "finding out" more about hard drives, from now on!

Thanks!

Under normal average conditions and usage, and eliminating user physical damage, a disk drive is expected to last anywhere between 2-5 years regardless of partitioning choice.

I would say that a boot HDD, one holding the OS and file paging, is likely to have a shorter life. I do not have any concrete proof or documentation to back this up. It's just my biased view based on prior experiences.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

I think a drive is expected to last for a warranty period, manufacturers have pretty big departments to test quality of the products and I don't think that anyone on this forum would know more about drive's life than those guys

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

One thing is reality, another is expectation. Drives ARE a consumable, at the end, like any part on a car or appliance - they are going to fail, the problem is WHEN. What I can say is that some drives are better made, some other are cheaper and you get what you pay, some other are more resilient , other are poor, many are becoming difficult to handle for DR. Common : if you treat them right, they last much longer.