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Is having the 'swap' partition at the 'beginning' better than at the 'end'?

rated 0 times [ 16] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 38623 / 2 Years ago, tue, february 15, 2022, 5:35:18

I recently installed Ubuntu 11.04 onto a RAID0(stripe) device using the alternate installation disc and manually partitioned the HDs ext4 and swap partitions; during this process, I was reading in a forum walkthrough (can't remember where...) that having the swap partition at the beginning of your hard drive could be better for some reason!

Is the idea that the swap is "closer" at the beginning so its accessed quicker with a lower latency/delay? The HD 'needle' moves less to reach the swap...

This confuses me because I like to think of Hard Drives as likened to a samurai sword(not literally)!

I was told that the last inch or two at the tip of the sword is the cutting edge because it travels the fastest.

(Think of a ball on a string and as you swing it around the ball at the end of the string is travelling at a greater speed than it would be if it was closer to the source - your hand)

BUT since the HD is spinning at (x)RPM then the outer edge of that HD should be spinning relatively faster (+x) providing quicker read/write rate.

So does the swap position affect performance in anyway? If so, is it better to have it placed in the beginning for immediate access, or at the end for increased read/write?

I would think the swap is sized and placed according to the individuals needs but how do I decide...

EDIT:

As a note, I do have 8GB of RAM (4x2GB) so I noticed that the swap has not been used in any of my GIS (mapping and analysis) processing. 8GB is the full capacity for my motherboard.

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cisccla

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4 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago beateyra · Accepted Answer

Forget swords and balls on string. Think of a stack of CD platters and then you will have in mind an image closer to what a hard drive is actually like.

Wikipedia on hard disks

Think also of the amount of Memory in the computer and ask, how often does the swap partition get used? Your question could be irrelevant. Disks do not have a beginning or an end. They have outer edges and inner edges. Data is placed across more than one platter. Seek times and access times, as well as spin speeds, would turn any answer into a debate.

Note this point from the Wikipedia article under HDD Formatting

Modern HDDs ... appear at their interfaces as a contiguous set of logical blocks; typically 512 bytes long

It only appears that has a beginning and an end. If performance is a concern then more RAM will have a greater effect than the placement of the swap partition.