Data files for tablespaces can be stored on a file system or on raw partitions. A raw partition is a portion of a physical disk that is accessed at the lowest possible level.

Input/output (I/O) to a raw partition offers approximately a 5% to 10% performance improvement over I/O to a partition with a file system on it.

• About Physical Disk
  A physical disk represents the entire disk and points to the following:
• About Logical Partition
  Logical partitions point to drives other than \Device\Harddiskx\Partition0.
• About Physical Disk and Logical Partition Considerations
  Consider the following when deciding which raw partition to use:
• About Compatibility Issues
  You can create logical partitions, but define physical disk convention names for them. For example: