Hi, i have a problem with hdd transfer speed..350MB file is copied to the same hdd(in different directory) for 1m40s..which is very slow..i'm on lenovo laptop, ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-17-generic.

hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 2084 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1042.09 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 102 MB in 3.03 seconds = 33.65 MB/sec

hdparm /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
IO_support = 0 (default)
16-bit)
HDIO_GET_UNMASKINTR failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_KEEPSETTINGS failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 9729/255/63, sectors = 156301488, start = 0

hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

Model=TOSHIBA MK8034GSX , FwRev=AH301E , SerialNo= 278JT8IQT
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=156301488
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-3,4,5,6,7

* signifies the current active mode

lsmod |grep ata
ata_generic 8324 0
pata_acpi 8320 0
ata_piix 19588 3
libata 159344 3 ata_generic,pata_acpi,ata_piix
scsi_mod 151436 5 sbp2,sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata

Can anybody help me with this?

Is your hard drive sata or pata? If your run hdparm -tT /dev/sda several times in a row do the speeds go down significantly?

I've seen this type of behaviour on pata drives that are running under the new libata and thus designated sdx instead of the traditional hdx. Some ide controllers have very buggy implementations in libata and many distros have resorted to using the legacy pata modules for these controllers instead of libata. Of course, if your hard drive is sata, this would have no application to your problem.