Disk Partitions and Performance

Question

I've got the following partition set up on one of my hard drives (Samsung 1TB HD103SJ):

This wasn't the original setup. Before, there were 2 partitions just before the 'Games' partition (a previous Windows OS install, and its 'System Reserved' partition). I've deleted both partitions because I had just purchased an SSD. Then, I've extended the 'Data' partition using the 2 previous partitions' space.

After doing so, I now have this kind of weird partitioning going on. The good thing is 'Data' partition is now 100GB larger than before. The bad thing, however, is that it's located on opposite ends of the drive (not sure if this is how hard drives work, by the way). Although it looks like it's two different partitions, it appears as one 'Data' partition/drive on Windows Explorer.

My question is: are there any disadvantages with this kind of drive/partition setup? If so, how can I fix this?

Answer 1

I see your disk 0 is dynamic. Volumes consisting of multiple partitions are OK for dynamic disks.

It's a feature of Veritas Volume Manager under Microsoft branding.

As for opposite ends of the drive, yes, beginning of the disk is a bit faster and ending of the disk is a bit slower, but not that much:

Answer 2

You could temporarily image the I: Data and K: Games partitions using a tool like Macrium Reflect Free, delete the partitions, then Restore them again. If you don't have enough space to backup 1TB of image partitions, you could use a tool like EASEUS Partition Master to Move the K: Games partition afterwards. EASEUS Partition Master might also have a combine partition tool if you are feeling risky with your data by performing such a break neck process.

One caveat: I'm not 100% certain of Macrium and EASEUS Partition Master's Dynamic Partition handling capabilities. I'm more confident in Macrium's ability than EASEUS, given that Macrium is just backing up the partition, not restructuring it.