Re: Disk performance deteriated to unbearable levels

[Arnt Karlsen <arnt@c2i.net>]

On Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:43:54 -0800, David wrote in message 
<[🔎] 4EB729CA.1090102@holgerdanske.com>:

> On 11/06/2011 03:13 PM, David Purton wrote:
> > Fairly recently - maybe in the last few months - but it's hard to
> > tell, the disk performance has dropped through the floor.
> 
> First, make at least two complete back up sets and store one off-site.
> 
> 
> It could be a hardware problem.

..look for disk read errors with e.g.: 'dmesg |grep error' or
'dmesg |grep read' or 'dmesg |grep sda' (or the old worn style
'dmesg |grep hda'), of that output is long enough to warrant
piping output to less (e.g. 'dmesg |grep error |less'), put in 
and install to a new disk and then follow David's back-up advice.

..your old disk should still be readable for the usb disk readers
before it dies totally, there are dd-rescue etc type tools for 
those data rescue jobs and you wanna work from a known good OS on 
your new disk.
 
> Your hard drive manufacturer should have a diagnostic utility
> available in the form of a bootable ISO image.  I'd download, burn,
> and boot that. If the diagnostic finds a problem, proceed
> accordingly.  Understand that other issues may make a good disk look
> bad (power supply, power cables, motherboard, controller card, data
> cable, etc.).  If the utility finds no problems, then I'd wipe the
> disk using the utility, do a fresh install, and then restore/
> reconnect data.
> 
> 
> As an aside, I use one disk for swap and the root file system, and a 
> second large disk for data.  Then whenever I do a fresh install, most 
> restoring data is a simple matter of hooking up the data drive.
> 
> 
> HTH,
> 
> David
> 
> 


-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.