[plug] OT(?):Single Partition most secure - others wear out disks (beginner student question)

[daniel at iinet.net.au]

Hi Plug,
Single Partition most secure -others wear out disks according to my 
lecturer and the text - I disagree & some support would be great(and 
references to quote), or to be put right.

They say:
"Single Partition, single-NOS.  A single-partition, single NOS 
configuration is a drive that has a single primary partition that is 
completely reserved for the NOS.  This is the most secure configuration" 
..... Text "MCSE - A Guide to Networking Essentials" c1998 by Ed Tittel & 
David Johnson (current text for this year's new course) p 238.

My Central TAFE lecturer Geraldine agrees and says she has spoken with Doug 
(TAFE hardware expert) who also agrees and goes further to say that:
~extra partitioning forces smaller cluster sizes and thus more reads and 
writes to disk to extract the same amount of data - causing disk thrashing 
and (eventual early) disk wear with consequent less data safety through 
physical integrity - this is general, broad and not O/S specific~.

I disagreed and said that many of the most exposed systems had partitioned 
drives precisely for security reasons. Someone else retorted that real 
systems would have separate disks for what might be partitions in my argument.

Are they right?

Thanks,
Daniel.