Re: Am I using my hard drives right?
Nano Nano wrote:
> Last Feb/Mar/Apr, as I learned Linux, I tried somewhat dilligently to
> understand if my IDE drives were being used "as fast as possible" -- I
> have a couple of UDMA/100 and a couple of UDMA/133 devices.
>
> I was thoroughly confused, but I got far enough to roughly guess that
> my drives were not operating in the old 33 way; but I didn't do
> anything special.
>
> Can somebody explain concisely and/or provide links to simple
> procedures to verify my IDE hard drives and CDs are using "advanced
> features" and are "tweaked"?
>
> Is it reasonable to accept that the kernel will just autodetect things
> optimally? I know with the Windows kernel you need to download stuff
> from Intel.com for Windows 2000 or things are in "compatability" mode
> by default.
/* OT I'm new to Debian (and Linux) , but (with respect) your comments on
Win2K
are not accurate. HDD performance and mode in Win2K depends on chipset and
service pack - there is little point in loading Intel drivers for a SIS
chipset. Your comments were somewhat true about the time of Win95. A new
install with latest service pack will usually see optimal settings as
default. */
To get back to Linux - HDPARM works for me.
It is impossible to give general instructions for best performance as this
requires detailed knowledge of the drives and chipset (and the right
cables). This is the joy of Linux.
An introduction to hdparm can be found at
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html
(thouigh this is dated) and
http://www.linuxnetmag.com/en/issue7/m7hdparm1.html
There's a few notes and a shell script that could be adapted at
http://crypto.stanford.edu/~eujin/linux/ibmx23debian.html
Generally, with most recent installs of most Linuxes I have found that the
drives are set to DMA mode on but no other speed-ups are enabled (with the
possible exception of Mandrake).
Test settings in single-user mode before deciding. Most settings are IDE/ATA
only but some are SCSI too.
MeJ
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