Query/enable (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support using hdparm
Check your current disk status.
-c Query/enable (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support. A numeric parameter can be used to enable/disable 32-bit I/O support: Currently sup-ported values include 0 to disable 32-bit I/O support, 1 to enable 32-bit data transfers, and 3 to enable 32-bit data trans-fers with a special sync sequence required by many chipsets.
The value 3 works with nearly all 32-bit IDE chipsets, but incurs slightly more overhead. Note that “32-bit” refers to data transfers across a PCI or VLB bus to
hdparm provides a command line interface to various kernel interfaces supported by the Linux SATA/PATA/SAS “libata” subsystem and the older IDE driver subsystem.
hdparm [ flags ] [device]
-T Perform timings of cache reads for benchmark and comparison purposes. For meaningful results, this operation should be repeated 2-3 times on an otherwise inactive system (no other active processes) with at least a couple of megabytes of free memory. This displays the speed of reading directly from the
Linux buffer cache without disk access. This measurement is essentially an indication of the throughput of the processor, cache, and memory of the system under test.
root@desktop:~#hdparm -T /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 2254 MB in 1.99 seconds = 1131.64 MB/sec
-t Perform timings of device reads for benchmark and comparison purposes. For meaningful results, this operation should be repeated 2-3 times on an otherwise inactive system (no other active processes) with at least a couple of megabytes of free memory. This displays the speed of reading through the buffer cache to the disk without any prior caching of data. This measurement is an indication of how fast the drive can sustain sequential data reads under Linux, without any filesystem overhead. To ensure accurate measurements, the buffer cache is flushed during the processing of -t using the BLKFLSBUF ioctl.
root@desktop:~# hdparm -t /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 118 MB in 3.01 seconds = 39.16 MB/sec
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.
