The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/rtb001 on 2025-06-02 18:59:09.
I recently bought yet another Exos 14 TB drive and this one is slated to backup some TV shows. Unlike the ones I bought earlier, this is one of those 2X14 dual actuator drives, in SATA.
Is it true that I can get more performance if I partition it into halves so each half is controlled by one of the actuators? When I initialized it in Windows with a quick format it just shows up as one single 14 TB volume. Do I simply partition it into two equal sized partitions in Disk Managment, or is it more complicated than that?
I've also read the increased performance would only be if it is put into two partitions and then under Raid 0, which I don't want to do. If simply partitioning it into two in disk management will give some other performance or reliability benefits without raid0/striping, then I would certainly do that, especially since this drive will hold two genres of shows (drama and scifi) which are sort of equal in size so would neatly go into two partitions.
Or should I just use it as a single 14TB volume if partitioning it give no real benefits unless I use it in Raid-0?