Full hard drive = slow computer?
Last Updated on Saturday, 27 June 2009 03:13 Written by Simon Nicol Sunday, 7 June 2009 02:31
Does my computer run more slowly if the hard disk drive has lots of files stored on it?
Dispelling the Myth
There are a number number of people that think if their hard disk has anything stored on it, will make their computer run slowly it very large indeed, so I thought I would start by explaining that this is not necessarily so, and thus expunge the urban myth.
I have never understood the logic behind their thinking, but because there are so many people who believe this to be true, I thought it was worth writing a post just clear this matter up for good.
Does a full hard disk make my computer slow?
NO.
Does having a book with more pages in it make it slower to read? No of course it doesn’t. It’s might take longer to read because there are more words in it, but the word reading speed is not affected by the actual number of words in a book.
If the pages in a book were randomly assembled and there were no page numbers, it would indeed take a long time to sort the book back into it’s correct logical reading order. However, memory stored on a hard disk drive does actually have a filing system. Believe it or not, there actually is a logical structure to the way the data is stored on a hard disk drive – it’s not just randomly sprayed onto the disk and then rummaged through when the data needs to be retrived.
Also, to use the book analogy just a little more. If I asked you to turn to page 15 of a book, does this take substantially longer to do so if a book involved has 200 pages instead of only 40 pages?
No, of coarse it doesn’t.
I would also like to mention here that having some free space on a hard disk drive is a good idea, because it does make if quicker for the files stored on the hard disk to be re-organised more quickly into a logical chronological or sequential order. It’s like having one of those sliding block puzzles that has an empty square and a picture drawn on the front, by utilising the empty space correctly the other blocks can be arranged in to the correct order. Without the empty space, there is no means for data stored on the hard disk to be rearranged, so yes it is a good idea to have some free space on your hard disk for this specific purpose.
Generally it is estimated that about 10% free on your hard disk should be amply sufficient for this purpose, but for very large hard disk drives less than 10% is also acceptable.
Also there needs to be some free space for what in Windows is called a page file. A page file is used to virtually extend the amount of RAM that your computer can use. If an opertion is executed that requires more memory than the computer has installed, it will create a swap file or page file to temporarily store imformation and virtually extend your computers processing capabilities. Beware however using a page file on your computers hard disk drive is in no way as fast as if your computer executed it’s instructions directly from RAM, so having a decent amount of RAM is a first good step in making your computer faster.
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