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Bad hdd performance

Hi,

I made a new server. Asrock N68PV-GS (http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=N68PV-GS), Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 4 GB ram and a Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1 TB. I installed CentOs 5.3. I think this is a very basic setup. Nothing really special or exotic.

It seems hdd performance is very bad.

hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 5208 MB in 2.00 seconds = 2603.57 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 106 MB in 3.07 seconds = 34.48 MB/sec

This is almost the same as my 6 year old Pentium 3.

hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

Model=WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 , FwRev=01.01A01, SerialNo= WD-WCAU48430253
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=32767kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1 ATA/ATAPI-2 ATA/ATAPI-3 ATA/ATAPI-4 ATA/ATAPI-5 ATA/ATAPI-6 ATA/ATAPI-7

* signifies the current active mode

hdparm -v /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 56065/255/63, sectors = 1953525168, start = 0

hdparm -c1 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 1
HDIO_SET_32BIT failed: Invalid argument
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)

I really don't know what to do. I spent hours surfing, trying to find a solution... But nothing.

I posted /var/log/messages on http://www.dimitrivisser.nl/messages

Is there someone who can give me an idea/solution ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimitrivisser (Post 3569792)

hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 5208 MB in 2.00 seconds = 2603.57 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 106 MB in 3.07 seconds = 34.48 MB/sec

This is almost the same as my 6 year old Pentium 3.

Is there someone who can give me an idea/solution ?

Hmmm... Interesting. Should be reading at 3.0Gb/sec, not 34.48Mb.

All I can offer right now is this review from a PC shop owner:

Quote:

The technology just isn't there.

Reviewed By: WD Wary on 1/30/2009
Tech Level Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Huge capacity.
Cons: Poor quality control. We have ordered 5 of these drives for clients - we are working on RMA #3. The first drive was DOA - click of death. The replacement was fine. Then we ordered two more a few months later - one seemed fine, the other was DOA - once again the COD. A week after installing the seemingly fine drive we are seeing signs of failure (had to rebuild a RAID) and hearing ominous sounds coming from the drive.
Other Thoughts: I run a computer repair shop. Western Digital has long been a trusted name in hard drive storage - but I wouldn't trust a drive larger than 500GB from them until they get these production kinks worked out. As of this writing the WD10EADS does not have a firmware fix available.... not that it would fix a click of death failure.

104 out of 147 people found this review helpful.

Found here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...N82E1682213631

Doesn't sound very promising.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragonslayer48dx (Post 3569826)

Hmmm... Interesting. Should be reading at 3.0Gb/sec, not 34.48Mb.

I read somewhere it should be 70 - 80 MB/sec.

I have no problems buying another hdd, if that's really the problem. What I thought is strange is the output of hdparm -v /dev/sda, 16 bit should be 32 bit. And hdparm -i /dev/sda doesn't show any active udma mode, while the bios says it's udma-6. I thought it was a driver problem.

My suggestion; download the MHDD boot disk (http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/) and run that on the disk, just the basic scan. Its pretty graphical so you'll be able to get a good idea of what is going on before the scan is done. Word of advice; you see a lot of red, you cancel the scan and start getting data off

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimitrivisser (Post 3569882)

I read somewhere it should be 70 - 80 MB/sec.

3.0Gb/sec was Newegg's claim. Not-so-surprisingly, I double-checked the link I provided earlier, and they've 'deactivated' the product. Can't be much.

I'd definitely take jamescondron's advice, and start looking for a better drive.