October 2004
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
7h 44m
English
Content preview from PC HacksBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Hack #67. Linux's Drive Performance Booster
To be on the safe side, your new Linux installation starts up with the least common denominator of disk drive performance capabilities—typically DMA-33—robbing you of 50-150% of your potential performance. Once Linux is installed, you are free and encouraged to start tweaking the configuration of your disk drive and its interface to squeeze the most of them.
Warning
Setting HDPARM parameters too aggressively—that is, in excess of the disk controller or drive capabilities—can lead to data loss.
It is best to test HDPARM settings on a fresh installation of the operating system before committing any applications or programs to the drive and prepare to back down on the settings and reinstall the OS if the drive is unstable or the HDPARM tests show erratic results or fail.
The tool needed, HDPARM, is included with the operating system (or available from your package manager). It can be adjusted manually and then put into a startup script to make your chosen settings effective every time the system starts up.
HDPARM is a command-line utility that provides powerful control over your hard drive parameters (HD PARaMeters). It can also tell you a lot about your disk drive. Everything you do with HDPARM, until you make a script for it, will be done at the command line.
Tip
You must be logged in as root
to run HDPARM. You can also use the sudo command to run the command as root if you have sufficient
privileges.
Assume /dev/hda is the designation for your ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.