Slow disk writing speeds

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Im having some problems with my linux box, im running red hat and am finding really slow disk writing speeds

Which for example when i copy / paste something it only does it at around 2mb/sec
also when i copy the contents of a cd to hdd i get the same low speed

I have a network setup aswell, which if i transfer files accross i get a speed of about 2Mb / sec again


this i have lived for for a while now and think its about time i should try and sort it out

i ran a couple disk speed test (which i cant remember the command) which said the hdd's were capable to write at around 45-50 mb/s (if i remember correctly)

I really hope someone could chuck some light on this,

Thanks,

James

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Howdy Battery Powered

I'm not exactly a Linux expert but I am getting into it. I am currently running RH 7.0 server/GNOME/KDE wkstation.

I'm not sure it's specifically related to the way RH Linux does things (which distro/version are you running ?). It may be more fundamental. Having a lot of processes running at once, especially if they are accessing devices on the same IDE port could make your HDD wait around a fair bit.

What kind of HDD(s) and CD devices are you using ? If they are SCSI then you shouldn't be experienceing these problems
(a run down on your mobo/processor/memory and other mobo resources would be good). On the LAN side to fully utilise 10Mbps or 100Mbps of bandwidth you need to be supplying the NIC with enough data to use the bandwidth (could be mobo/processor related or other resources as well as your HDD/CD transfer rates
- complex).

Have you run any other OSes/NOSes on the same box ? What results did you get there ?

If you are using [E]IDE/ATAPI CD drive(s) and IDE ATA HDDs
(is your HDD ATA33, 66, 100, 133 .. ?) then you should run your main HDD and any CD drive on OPPOSITE IDE ports. This will help with performance as on shared IDE ports (2 devices) a HDD will have to wait while CD commands complete. Many systems have the main HDD and a CDROM installed on the primary (HDD master and CD slave) IDE which works but maybe not optimally in different circumstances. It depends what you are doing with your system (how many simultaneous processes and what resources they are using/modes of access).

My approach is to install my IDE HDDs on the primary IDE port and any CD drives on the secondary port. A CDR[W] drive should never be installed on the same port as your main HDD. The combo will work but you may have bad burns or other issues from time to time due to these devices having to share the same port.

Your situation may be simple but then this kind of performance thing can get very complex to analyse and correct. I hope it's not a tough one to crack. There are a few things here you can check anyways. Hope this helps.

Let me know how it goes.

cheers

The Web Gecko

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Its really weird, i ran a test a day or to back (i think i used a command like 'hdparm -t /dev/hda' or something)

which i got a result of again around 50MB / sec

that was all the same as before but i was using my network today to transfer some files from my linux computer to the windows commputer and got speeds of around 8-10MB / sec

so somethings weird, it just goes and speeds up on me for some reason,

you mentioned about what type of hdd it is, its IDE and im not sure about all the other info but when i get back home i'll get the info and paste it in here