hard drive setting UDMA PIO etc

cevjr · 07-30-2003, 04:40 PM

I have a basic question. After running Redhat 9 for a few days now, I realize that my laptop is rather not as quick as it was with W2K.

How can i check if the hard drive is set up properly and using Ultra DMA instead of PIO?

Your help and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

C.

finegan · 07-30-2003, 05:02 PM

As root:

hdparm -i /dev/hda

That'll give a read like:

Code:

root@diane:/home/bob# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=ST38410A, FwRev=3.03, SerialNo=3CS03AQ3
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=512kB, MaxMultSect=32, MultSect=32
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=16841664
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,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
 AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: device does not report version:  1 2 3 4 5

The flagged dma mode is what you're looking for, the one with the * is what it is currently set to.

I wouldn't be surprised though, if its just RH 9.0 and a lot of bloat running by default, how many processes do you have running under "top"?

Cheers,

Finegan

cevjr · 07-30-2003, 05:34 PM

Well its flagged to UDMA2

i have 62 processs running 59 sleeping 3 running.
I don't know how to cut and paste the output from my terminal (i'm using the default terminal that comes with RH 9)

Thanks for your help. It was a quick response. I actually am waiting for someone to answer another question I posted in the Network section...but no one seems to want to answer the SAMBA Question.

Saudos,
C.

finegan · 07-30-2003, 05:39 PM

udma2 equates to ATA-33, if that's all that's listed, that's the most the drive can do. hdparm takes a read straight off of the bios of the drive.

cut'n'paste works by highlight. Highlight the text and its immediately in the buffer by default. To paste, there's usually a pull-down option per box menu, but also a third-button mouse click, or in the case of a 2-button mouse, click them both at once.

I largely avoid samba, but I'll take a look.

Cheers,

Finegan