Access times for different partitions on same hard disk

Question

I have partitions, /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

/ is mounted on /dev/sda1, while all other data is on sda2 which has more size allocated to it.

I want to save the virtual machine images (VirtualBox Disk Image) on sda2.

My question is, should I expect any difference in performance if I access data from the second partition?

tl;dr -- is there is any difference in performance if I have to access data located on a different partition? If yes, does it make sense to decrease seek times by moving data to /dev/sda1?

Please note that this may be one of those micro-optimization issues but I want to squeeze every possible inch of performance I can for the VMs.

Answer 1

My question is, should I expect any difference in performance if I access data from the second partition?

Whether or not you see any difference depends on filesystem type and the underlying device.

There should be no noticeable difference if it is the same device, same fstype.

Having the VM on a separate filesystem is certainly useful for backing up by partition or filesystem.

If you were to put the VM filesystem on a separate device, like a an SSD or fast, high RPM HD Then you might see a noticeable difference.

As always, it depends.

How much activity is taking place on /? What kind of activity? I/O intensive? Same questions for VM.