HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

[bandit]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

Well here is mine on a Maxtor Diamondmax10 7200RPM ATA133 160GB Hard Drive:

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:  1044 MB in 2.00 seconds = 521.04 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 190 MB in 3.02 seconds = 62.99 MB/sec
joey@sigel:~$

Cheers,
Joey

[gregwalton]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

hmm, different error now:

riscphree@mainbox:~$ sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Well its saying it doesnt have the option to switch DMA on or off. To be honest I havent upgraded to SATA yet so I dont know if it runs by default or not.
Hopefully someone who uses serial drives in the forum can comment.
I will ask around on some other forums also for you.
Cheers,
Joey

SATA doesn't have the option of PIO or DMA modes that IDE has. It effectively just runs in DMA, so the "-d1" to set DMA mode is irrelevant or, as it says, inappropriate.

Your SATA drive should be pretty fast anyway.

Cheers

Greg

[SpEcIeS]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

It would seem that on my installation hdparm was already setup.

[Orc65]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

Okay, guys help me out if you can, I'm trying to speed up my system by using the hdparm commands etc. So far I can get information using -i and -I, but  the following commands -X69, -c3, -m16, or -u1, while they are sent are not acted on. The following text is the same before and after the commands are given.

Notice the line "Config {Fixed}"
Does this mean that the drive config has been fixed by the manufacturer, if so, how do I unfix it and do I really want to try?


root@wolverine:~# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

Model=Maxtor 6L100P0, FwRev=BAJ41G10, SerialNo=L231BWZG
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
CurCHS=65535/1/63, CurSects=4128705, LBA=yes, LBAsects=195371568
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: (null):  ATA/ATAPI-1 ATA/ATAPI-2 ATA/ATAPI-3 ATA/ATAPI-4 ATA/ATAPI-5 ATA/ATAPI-6 ATA/ATAPI-7

* signifies the current active mode

root@wolverine:~# hdparm -I /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       Maxtor 6L100P0
        Serial Number:      L231BWZG
        Firmware Revision:  BAJ41G10
Standards:
        Supported: 7 6 5 4
        Likely used: 7
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   65535
        heads           16      1
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:    4128705
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  195371568
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  195371568
        device size with M = 1024*1024:       95396 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      100030 MBytes (100 GB)
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 32
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 0
        Advanced power management level: unknown setting (0x0000)
        Recommended acoustic management value: 192, current value: 192
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           *    NOP cmd
           *    READ BUFFER cmd
           *    WRITE BUFFER cmd
           *    Look-ahead
           *    Write cache
           *    Power Management feature set
                SMART feature set
           *    FLUSH CACHE EXT command
           *    Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
           *    48-bit Address feature set
           *    Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
                SET MAX security extension
                Advanced Power Management feature set
           *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd
           *    General Purpose Logging feature set
           *    SMART self-test
           *    SMART error logging
HW reset results:
        CBLID- below Vih
        Device num = 0 determined by the jumper
Checksum: correct

[randavance]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

Shibby!

Before this thread
Timing cached reads: 512 MB in 2.00 seconds = 255.47 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 34 MB in 3.05 seconds = 11.15 MB/sec

After this thread
Timing cached reads: 744 MB in 2.00 seconds = 371.98 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 30 MB in 3.03 seconds = 9.89 MB/sec

Yeah my prssesor sucks, but what can I say, I never upgraded from the default one the put in the dell demension 2400, so that was almost a 42% increase in the cached reads, thank you!

[lyall]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

If you tryied all the options and your hard drive is still acting slow.

You should run a hard drive diagnostics program from a bootable floppy, CD, or USB. Most hard drive manufactures have a drive test program. Also the PC manufactors have may have a diagnostics program.

If you have errors your hard drive the drive is about done for.
If the has linear errors are one sign the drive is dying.
I do not know how to run "chkdsk" (Windows) on Linux a machine. But if you do have linear errors chkdsk can not fix them. :

If you have to buy a new hard drive look a seagate, they have a 5 year warranty. Some of the other you have to paid for more years of warranty.
Is is a good idea to run a diagnostics on the PC/Laptop before your warranty runs out. 8)


Good Luck

[lmilano]

Re: HOW TO: speed up your hard disk performance

Your SATA drive should be pretty fast anyway.

Cheers

Greg

I would hope so. But in my box, I have an ATA and a (newer, fancier, more expensive) SATA. It turns out that the ATA is faster, as measured by "hdparm -tT"

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:  1108 MB in 2.00 seconds = 552.86 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 126 MB in 3.02 seconds = 41.66 MB/sec

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:  1088 MB in 2.00 seconds = 543.97 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in 3.03 seconds = 21.11 MB/sec

(note: I am reporting the best measurement in 3 runs for each drive

Hdparm doesn't seem to do much for sata drives, and a few months ago I spent a few hours googling for a Linux utility for tuning Sata drives with no luck. Any pointers anyone ?

Cheers !