Origin of "partition" in storage devices

[Warner Losh]

On Tue, Feb 1, 2022, 9:14 AM Jon Elson via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
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!
>

Drive makers these days use variable bit rates to increase density of the
outer tracks. The lower LBAs these days are faster for sequential transfer
than the inner tracks by as much as 20%.

Warner