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Please do not post questions about data recovery cases here (use this forum instead). This forum is for topics on finding new ways to recover data. Accessing firmware, writing programs, reading bits off the platter, recovering data from dust...How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 19th, 2011, 9:54
For an 160GB S-ATA drive.
How full does the drive have to be before you notice a lag
in performance.
From my experience, when the drive is 95 per cent full, things really slow down.
What is your experience?
How full does the drive have to be before you notice a lag
in performance.
From my experience, when the drive is 95 per cent full, things really slow down.
What is your experience?
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 19th, 2011, 10:06
It's an O/S issue rather than hardware
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 19th, 2011, 12:47
Well, it is *kind of* a hardware issue as well.
Drives access the sectors at the end (inner most part) of the drive slower then the outer and middle, no matter what. So if you where to put even a small amount of data only at the end of the drive it would be about as slow as if it was full.
The other factor that causes drive slowing is fragmentation.
Also bad sectors will cause the drive to slow down greatly because the heads will have to seek to reserve sectors periodically and then back to the track they where on.
Drives access the sectors at the end (inner most part) of the drive slower then the outer and middle, no matter what. So if you where to put even a small amount of data only at the end of the drive it would be about as slow as if it was full.
The other factor that causes drive slowing is fragmentation.
Also bad sectors will cause the drive to slow down greatly because the heads will have to seek to reserve sectors periodically and then back to the track they where on.
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 19th, 2011, 18:24
I vote for a delayed sectors that makes the drive very slow.
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 21st, 2011, 4:10
I have another opinion : O/S plays a big role, but the overall speed is different if data is being read from OD or ID (physical location). So , depending on how the drive was filled it may affect performance. This depends also on how servo is structured and how zones are structured.
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 21st, 2011, 10:16
And what will happen with a solid-state drive (SSD)? 
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 21st, 2011, 13:46
Nothing. Access time in semiconductor memories , as far as I know, is almost independent from the accessed location or if there are differences , they can be neglected. Out of curiosity I have searched on many databooks I have and there is no mention about it .
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
January 27th, 2011, 4:47
Most problems with SSD speed is more about the PC hardware configuration, or some fw bug, like the one that afected the Intel SSD drives.
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
February 20th, 2011, 4:32
guru wrote:And what will happen with a solid-state drive (SSD)?
the first thing that will happen you will smell some burning
then a melt down
Re: How full does a HDD before performance is affected?
February 20th, 2011, 4:33
O/S issue not a hard drive as it reading the file structure of the drive
so when you get about 95% full
the drive will slow down as its trying to read all the information on the file structure
so when you get about 95% full
the drive will slow down as its trying to read all the information on the file structure
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