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2k..
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 81
Location: Tiverton - UK
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 Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 7:34 pm Post subject: Fat32 partition reads very slowly |
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Hi there,
All my data, music etc... is currently on a FAT32 partition, Gentoo is on a 60 gig drive and WinXP is on a 20 gig drive. I want to copy all my files to the linux partition as i don't use XP for anything other than work stuff.
the trouble is when i try and copy stuff from the fat32 partition to my reiserfs partition it copies very slowly, almost like i am copying it across a network.
I know that this isn't a problem when i finally get it all copied over i would just like to know why it's going so slowly? curriosity as to where i have gone wrong i suppose.
here is a what fstab looks like
| Code: | | /dev/hdb1 /mnt/windrv vfat sw 0 0 |
am still very much a noob so sorry if i look dumb
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Haro
n00b
Joined: 17 May 2003
Posts: 71
Location: West Bend, WI
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| Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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Are the drives on the same IDE cable?
Is DMA enabled (hdparm /dev/hd[x])? ata66/100/133 being taken advantage of? |
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2k..
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 81
Location: Tiverton - UK
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| Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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The drives are on the same cable.
I'm not sure what you mean on the second point so i'll have to assume no |
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The Khan Artist
Apprentice
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 210
Location: Texas, USA
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| Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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| 2k.. wrote: | The drives are on the same cable.
I'm not sure what you mean on the second point so i'll have to assume no |
Try typing
hdparm /dev/hdx
For example, here's what I get on hda:
| Code: | root@mmebane mmebane # hdparm /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 23819/16/63, sectors = 90069840, start = 0 |
DMA support is a must for any sort of good speed. O'Reilly used to have a very good article about hdparm, but I can't find it any more. |
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2k..
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 81
Location: Tiverton - UK
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| Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry about the delay in my reply I had to work away unexpectedly again 
he is the output from hdparm
| Code: |
/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 7297/255/63, sectors = 117231408, start = 0
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i notice that it is different to yours, any idea's? |
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FormerSlacker
Guru
Joined: 11 Mar 2003
Posts: 340
Location: Toronto, ON. Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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You should enable dma access on your drive using hdparm. That should make a big difference in drive access speed. Make sure you compiled support for your ide chipset in the kernel.
See http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html for a good intoduction to hdparm. (This one Khan?  )
To enable dma, use:
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hdparm -d1 /dev/hdX
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where X is the drive you want to enable dma, such as /dev/hda(b,c,d). You get the idea  |
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2k..
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 81
Location: Tiverton - UK
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| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:30 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for your help.
buffered disk reads started at 3.1 and it's now running at 28.44!!! more than a little improvement.
my question now is what file do i add the line
| Code: | | hdparm -X66 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 /dev/hda |
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FormerSlacker
Guru
Joined: 11 Mar 2003
Posts: 340
Location: Toronto, ON. Canada
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| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2003 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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| 2k.. wrote: | Thanks for your help.
buffered disk reads started at 3.1 and it's now running at 28.44!!! more than a little improvement.
my question now is what file do i add the line
| Code: | | hdparm -X66 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 /dev/hda |
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Check out /etc/conf.d/hdparm. Add the options to the variable belonging to your disk and uncomment it. Then add the hdparm script to bootup.
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rc-update add hdparm default
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That should to it. An easier way would be just to add the hdparm command to /etc/conf.d/local.start, although the hdparm script would be more correct 
In either case, the hdparm command would be run at bootup. |
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2k..
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 81
Location: Tiverton - UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for your help 
will give it a try |
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