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IDE PATA performance issuses - harddrive slow

Hi.
I have a Maxtor 6L300R0 and it seems that its performance is not what it should be.

As you can see, it takes 122 seconds to cat a 888 MB file to /dev/null, that gives a speed of about 7 Mbyte/sec which is really low especially considering that hdparm shows it can do 61 MByte/sec.
I tried with other files and the speed was about the same.

Code:

ctrler@jupiter:~/Media/Jogos$ time cat Dragon.Ball.AF-PS2_NTSC_DVDFull\(2007\).tar > /dev/null



real    2m2.626s

user    0m0.050s

sys    0m1.050s

ctrler@jupiter:~/Media/Jogos$

Here are the results from hdparm -tT /dev/sda, the seem normal, 61 MB/sec is very good.

Code:

ctrler@jupiter:~$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda



/dev/sda:

 Timing cached reads:  1728 MB in  2.00 seconds = 863.86 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  186 MB in  3.03 seconds =  61.36 MB/sec

ctrler@jupiter:~$

Some aditional info:

Code:

ctrler@jupiter:~/Media/Jogos$ sudo hdparm -i /dev/sda                          

/dev/sda:



 Model=Maxtor 6L300R0                          , FwRev=BAH41G10, SerialNo=L62E71HG

 Config={ Fixed }

 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57

 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=16384kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?

 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=586114704

 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 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6

 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled

 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7



 * signifies the current active mode



ctrler@jupiter:~/Media/Jogos$

Code:

ctrler@jupiter:~/Media/Jogos$ uname -a

Linux jupiter 2.6.24-18-server #1 SMP Wed May 28 21:25:52 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Code:

[  40.902895] scsi1 : ata_piix

[  40.903863] ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xd480 ctl 0xd400 bmdma 0xcc00 irq 20

[  40.903866] ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x8f0 ctl 0x8f8 bmdma 0xcc08 irq 20

[  41.073672] ata1.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6L300R0, BAH41G10, max UDMA/133

[  41.073677] ata1.00: 586114704 sectors, multi 16: LBA48

[  41.113205] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100

[  41.113249] ata2: port disabled. ignoring.

[  41.113384] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access    ATA      Maxtor 6L300R0  BAH4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5

[  41.113456] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]

[  41.113490] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19

[  41.113527] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64

[  41.113573] scsi2 : ata_piix

[  41.113614] scsi3 : ata_piix

[  41.114488] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe080 ctl 0xe000 bmdma 0xd800 irq 19

[  41.114491] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xdc00 ctl 0xd880 bmdma 0xd808 irq 19

[  41.201116] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 2, error -71

[  41.461095] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods

[  41.461166] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 586114704 512-byte hardware sectors (300091 MB)

[  41.461176] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off

[  41.461178] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00

[  41.461191] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

[  41.461232] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 586114704 512-byte hardware sectors (300091 MB)

[  41.461241] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off

[  41.461242] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00

[  41.461256] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

[  41.461258]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3

[  41.503715] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

[  41.507703] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

Thanks in advance for the help.

Hi,

Quote:

excerpt from 'man hdparm';

-i Display the identification info that was obtained from the drive
at boot time, if available. This is a feature of modern IDE
drives, and may not be supported by older devices. The data
returned may or may not be current, depending on activity since
booting the system. However, the current multiple sector mode
count is always shown. For a more detailed interpretation of
the identification info, refer to AT Attachment Interface for
Disk Drives (ANSI ASC X3T9.2 working draft, revision 4a, April
19/93).

What's the output for 'hdparm -I /dev/sda'? This will get the information directly from the hdd. At boot (-i option) the hdd is using '*udma5'.

Quote:

excerpt from 'man hdparm';

-I Request identification info directly from the drive, which is
displayed in a new expanded format with considerably more detail
than with the older -i flag.

Here it is.
It says it is in udma5.

Code:

ctrler@jupiter:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda

[sudo] password for ctrler:



/dev/sda:



ATA device, with non-removable media

        Model Number:      Maxtor 6L300R0

        Serial Number:      L62E71HG

        Firmware Revision:  BAH41G10

Standards:

        Used: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0

        Supported: 7 6 5 4 & some of 8

Configuration:

        Logical        max    current

        cylinders      16383  16383

        heads          16      16

        sectors/track  63      63

        --

        CHS current addressable sectors:  16514064

        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455

        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  586114704

        device size with M = 1024*1024:      286188 MBytes

        device size with M = 1000*1000:      300090 MBytes (300 GB)

Capabilities:

        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)

        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum

        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16

        Advanced power management level: disabled

        Recommended acoustic management value: 192, current value: 192

        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6

            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:

          *    SMART feature set

                Security Mode feature set

          *    Power Management feature set

          *    Write cache

          *    Look-ahead

          *    Host Protected Area feature set

          *    WRITE_VERIFY command

          *    WRITE_BUFFER command

          *    READ_BUFFER command

          *    NOP cmd

          *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE

                Advanced Power Management feature set

                SET_MAX security extension

          *    Automatic Acoustic Management feature set

          *    48-bit Address feature set

          *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set

          *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE

          *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT

          *    SMART error logging

          *    SMART self-test

                Media Card Pass-Through

          *    General Purpose Logging feature set

          *    WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT

          *    URG for READ_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT

          *    URG for WRITE_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT

          *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set

          *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)

Security:

        Master password revision code = 65534

                supported

        not    enabled

        not    locked

                frozen

        not    expired: security count

        not    supported: enhanced erase

HW reset results:

        CBLID- above Vih

        Device num = 0 determined by the jumper

Checksum: correct