Hard disk performance

[lroy1978]

Hi All,
My hard disk performance seems less than perfect. I have tried the following commands:

tux lee # hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
multcount = 0 (off)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 24792/255/63, sectors = 203928109056, start = 0
tux lee # hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 1756 MB in 2.00 seconds = 877.95 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 2 MB in 3.75 seconds = 546.39 kB/sec
tux lee # hdparm -c 1 -d 1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 1
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
using_dma = 0 (off)
tux lee # hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 1752 MB in 2.00 seconds = 875.95 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 4 MB in 3.97 seconds = 1.01 MB/sec

Is this normal?
Thanks,
Lee

[tost]

You must have activate the right dma settings in the kernel.
(if you don´t know where you can find it look in the wiki or ask again pls)

then you can use hdparm for enabling some nice tweakings like dma and stuff
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html
http://www.gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_hdparm_to_improve_IDE_device_performance

edit:
Your error comes up quite often
HDIO_SET_DMA failed

tost

[bollucks]