[G4] HD size vs. performance

[Richard Klein]

jim carbone sez:
>
> I notice that it's a huge speed difference now. Apps like Word and
> Photoshop which used to open slowly, now pop open super-fast.  My
> question is: Is this a function of the fact that it was cloned to a
> new drive (almost like a major defrag) or is it because of the
> massive amount of free space on the drive? I feel like 160GB is gross
> overkill for the 28GB my OS drive uses (I have my iTunes and iPhoto
> libraries on other HDs).

It probably did defrag the files as it cloned them, but in addition to
that, a larger capacity drive of the same form factor has the data packed
closer together which often means that the drive head doesn't have to
travel as far to get to it.  If the drive has more platters, the switch
between platters is electronic rather than mechanical, so it's also faster
to access data that's distributed across platters rather than moving the
head to various places on a single platter.  It all comes down to moving
the heads as little as possible.

-- 
Rich