Origin of "partition" in storage devices

[Mike Katz]

In the rotating drive world there is constant linear velocity (CLV) and 
constant angular velocity (CAV) drives.

On CLV drives the speed of rotation would vary based on the track 
(slower in the inner tracks and faster on the outer tracks).  This meant 
that the data rate and number of bits/track remained constant.

On CAV drives the rotational speed of the drive doesn't change, this 
means that the data rate and number of bits/track changes depending on 
the track.


On 2/1/2022 10:14 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> On 2/1/22 04:02, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
>>
>> One of our favourite small PC builders, Panrix, questioned this. They
>> reckoned that having the swap file on the outer, longer tracks of the
>> drive made it slower, due to slower access times and slower transfer
>> speeds. They were adamant.
>>
> HUH?  Yes, the outer tracks ARE longer, but the whole platter spins at 
> the same angular velocity, so there can't be any speed difference!  
> Did they think there is a whole bunch of magnetic tape inside the 
> drive?  Wow!
>
> Jon
>