The increased activity is because the info needed is more likely to be scattered around the drive. With a separate scratch partition, the info is only within the confines of that partition. On Sun, 1 Jun 2003, david wrote: . . . > No question about it -> when the drive fills up there is a noticeable > increase in drive activity and resultant slowdown. It isn't a question > of the partition causing the problem but rather simply a full drive. . . .