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FizzyWidget Veteran
Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 1133 Location: 127.0.0.1
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Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:51 pm Post subject: Extended partitions |
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Does it have any performance impact if gentoo is installed to an extended or logical drive?
I am thinking of dual booting main pc as win7/gentoo, mainly for games and seeing as Windows 7 requires 2 partitions that only leaves 2 primary partitions avliable, so I will have to use extended partitions for some of the folders
Probably a silly question but I thought I would ask it and get all the information before I go messing about _________________ I know 43 ways to kill with a SKITTLE, so taste my rainbow bitch. |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54099 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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Dark Foo,
File system mounting may take a few microseconds longer as the kernel has to traverse the linked list that describes logical partitions.
After the filesystem is mounted, it makes no difference at all.
If your version of Windows supports GPT, you can use GPT and have 255 primary partitions. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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doom555 n00b
Joined: 29 Oct 2012 Posts: 57
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Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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From what I know, you will not have any slowdown using extended partitions ... In fact, the extended partitions exist because of the limitations of the master boot record (where you can define only 4 partitions). An extended partition include inside the logical partitions and defines their characteristics.
Logically, I would think that the only thing that could be slowed down is reading the partition definition, since it is read before the MBR that refers to the extended partition which defines the characteristics of the logical partition.
Instead, it could affect the speed, the position of the disk where the partition is located, it is said that the data in the most interior are read and written faster!!! |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54099 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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doom555,
Hard drives are 'zoned'. They are divided into a number of areas where the physical sectors per track varies.
There are more sectors per track near the edge then there are near the spindle. The difference is about 2:1.
Therefore, the sequential read speed at the outside of the platter is about twice that near the spindle. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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cwr Veteran
Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1969
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Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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I've always installed Linux on extended partitions - the primaries are taken
up by Windows, Windows Recovery, and a FAT partitition for data transfer.
I've never had any problems; on large drives I use the last extended
partition for a bunch of LVN containers.
Will |
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srs5694 Guru
Joined: 08 Mar 2004 Posts: 434 Location: Woonsocket, RI
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Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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NeddySeagoon wrote: | File system mounting may take a few microseconds longer as the kernel has to traverse the linked list that describes logical partitions. |
I'm not positive, but I think that the kernel notes the start and stop points of the partitions when it boots, rather than when the partitions are accessed. If that's the case, you wouldn't see any difference at mount time, although there'd be a tiny (unnoticeable) effect on boot times. As you said, there should be no effect once the partitions are mounted.
Quote: | If your version of Windows supports GPT, you can use GPT and have 255 primary partitions. |
First, Windows ties its boot style to the disk partition table type: Windows boots BIOS-based computers only from MBR disks, and it boots EFI-based computers only from GPT disks. Thus, changing to GPT would require changing the boot mode from BIOS to EFI. This is possible, but it's tedious and risky, and it requires either an EFI-based computer or use of the awkward DUET boot loader software. Thus, it's a change I don't recommend unless there's a significant need for it.
Second, the default size for a GPT is 128 entries. This can be raised (or lowered, although that violates the GPT spec) to just about any value you like, but I have yet to hear of anybody who actually needs more than 128 partitions. |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54099 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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srs5694,
Thank you for your corrections. I have not suffered from Windows for 10 years, apart from on my company provided laptop, that I'm not allowed to touch. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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