Oct 31st, 2009
hdparm get/set SATA/ATA device parameters
hdparm get/set SATA/ATA device parameters
Hdparm is a tool that allows you to set IDE device settings. This includes things such as DMA modes, transfer settings and various other settings that can help improve the speed of your hard disks and CDROMs. These settings are not enabled by default, so you will probably want to enable them.
Getting information about your different drives.
Different drives have different capabilities, so in order to configure them you must know what they are capable of doing. # hdparm -i /dev/hdX should give you the information you need (replace hdX with your drive)
-i Display the identification info that was obtained from the drive at boot time, if available. This is a feature of modern IDE drives, and may not be supported by older devices.
Benchmarking devices
hdparm -tT
hdparm includes a handy benchmark mode, which should allow you to see how much of a speed. When running a benchmark it is recommended that you close all programs that could interfere with the results.
You can use the following command to check what your IDE chipset
To enable DMA on a device type the following:
Now run a benchmark and see how much of an improvement you have received.
