sata harddisk speed

[danjde]

Hi friends,
i would know if exist o,ne method for analyze or debug the hd speed (in my case sata) and discover the causes of a slow disk;

I launched hdparm (hdparm -iI) and all seem ok, but the harddisk seem to me very slow (perhaps the controller?).

this is the result o hdparm:

hdparm -iI /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

Model=ST3250310AS, FwRev=3.AAF, SerialNo=6RYE2JVF
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=488397168
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,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 *udma5 udma6
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

* signifies the current active mode


ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST3250310AS
Serial Number: 6RYE2JVF
Firmware Revision: 3.AAF
Standards:
Supported: 7 6 5 4
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 488397168
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 238475 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 250059 MBytes (250 GB)
cache/buffer size = 8192 KBytes
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Recommended acoustic management value: 208, current value: 0
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
Write-Read-Verify feature set
* WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
* {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Phy event counters
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
Checksum: correct



i've also test the disk speed, but i don't know if the range speed is normal:


[hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep -i speed
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)

hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1584 MB in 2.00 seconds = 792.10 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 130 MB in 3.04 seconds = 42.75 MB/sec
[root@cosmogonia vage]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1620 MB in 2.00 seconds = 810.57 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 180 MB in 3.05 seconds = 59.03 MB/sec
[root@cosmogonia vage]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1662 MB in 2.00 seconds = 830.36 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 180 MB in 3.03 seconds = 59.39 MB/sec
[root@cosmogonia vage]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1578 MB in 2.00 seconds = 789.08 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 172 MB in 3.03 seconds = 56.73 MB/sec
[root@cosmogonia vage]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1604 MB in 2.00 seconds = 802.70 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 170 MB in 3.02 seconds = 56.34 MB/sec


any suggestion?

many many thanks!!

davide

[picasso_1.2.13]

i think that is pretty normal for that model hard drive, which is quite old now. if you do a search online for benchmarks of that model hard drive, they show about the same speeds.

i don't think it will make much of a difference at this point, but normally increasing the read ahead cache does help (again, I think it may not help in your case):

/sbin/blockdev --setra 8192 /dev/sda

[stevea]

Model=ST3250310AS

This looks like a seagate 7200.10 series drive, a 250BG drive.
FWIW I have a couple Seagate 7200.10 320BG drives. My drive has 4 platters @80GB each while your has 3x80GB platters. So mine *might* be 4/3 (1.33x) times faster for the low level data transfer. I get ...
$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda (F16)

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 6406 MB in 2.00 seconds = 3204.62 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 226 MB in 3.03 seconds = 74.65 MB/sec


So 74.65/÷56.34 = 1.325, which is exactly in the right ballpark.

However I have exactly the same model & FW drive on a different system (F14) and I get ...
[stevea@hypoxylon ~]$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads: 9336 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4669.93 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 174 MB in 3.02 seconds = 57.62 MB/sec

and others ~52 - 59.5MB/sec, extremely similar to your result.


You have ....
Model=ST3250310AS, FwRev=3.AAF, SerialNo=6RYE2JVF
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=488397168
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,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 *udma5 udma6
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

While I have (both systems, identical lines to yours, excelt size, excluded) ...
Model=ST3320620AS, FwRev=3.AAE, SerialNo=xxxxxxx
[...]
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=16384kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
[...]
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
[....]

=================

What I see from hdparm is that your drive supports udma6, but is set to udma5 for some reason. The udma5 rate is 100MB/s and the udma6 is 133MB/s - but that seems to not be the limiting factor. This setting is *perhaps* an interface/driver issue.

60MB/s *may* be the upper '-t' bound for your physical drive. I know that some time ago (F12) I was getting the same ~74 MB/sec on the faster system from these drives.

Your cache access rates look awfully slow (4x to ~6x slower than mine. This is entirely controlled by your system memory speed and your disk interfaces. Has little to do with the drive.


My (f14) system has a lot slower -t performance for the same drive, but much faster -T cache time. This system is newer w/ much faster dram and cpu.

---

I think we need to examine the interface, driver and it's settings.
more to follow

[danjde]

Many thanks to all,
now i will make the controller test ;-)

ciao!

[Dangermouse]

Another thing that may impact is that your drive is sata2 but is your mb sata2 or 1

[stevea]

On my 'slow' f14 system, I switched the 7200.10 drive from a native Intel SATA to a Jmicron SATA and the 'hdparm -t' rate changed from ~58 MB/sec to the expected 74 MB/sec.