DMA & Slow hard driver performance

Stevetgn · 06-22-2003, 04:39 PM

Folders, directories & application are slow openning comparded with my WinXP installation which is very "snappy", click a folder it opens imediately. How do I check if DMA is enabled for my two hard drives. Or is something else causing this?

Thanks in advance

Steve (The_Ginger_Ninja)

Mara · 06-22-2003, 04:57 PM

From console (as root) use
hdparm -I /dev/hda
(if you're using hda).

I think that the performance may be connected with something differnet. Are you sure you're not running services you don't need?

contrasutra · 06-22-2003, 05:13 PM

What read speeds should a 7200rpm ATA100 IDE drive normally be getting w/ DMA enabled?

Mara · 06-23-2003, 03:39 PM

My disk (80GB WD, 7200rpm) does 64MB with 35MB/s with DMA. Maybe it will be helpful for you (there are many processes etc, so the real result should be faster).

contrasutra · 06-23-2003, 04:25 PM

Yeah, mine does 40mb/s, so its all working good.

jpforte · 06-24-2003, 06:30 PM

Hey I just read on another page that it is the kernel version

Try searching "toshiba tecra redhat 9 slow" and I found that a problem with DMA is inherent in the 2.4.20 kernel and AGP.

The solution was to install the latest 2.4.21 kernel ...
Which I am not about to do on the laptop.

I just rebooted my rh8 kernel back to 2.4.18 and ...

It's back to normal (fast speed) for a P2, and I am pretty picky.

Now if someone knows how I can get an RPM for RH in the new kernel version let me know.