hdparm settings

hdparm is used to get and set drive parameters

rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sda /dev/sda: multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdb /dev/sdb: multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 364801/255/63, sectors = 5860533168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdc /dev/sdc: multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdd /dev/sdd: multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sde /dev/sde: multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 364801/255/63, sectors = 5860533168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdf /dev/sdf: multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 60801/255/63, sectors = 976773168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdg /dev/sdg: multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdh /dev/sdh: multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 364801/255/63, sectors = 5860533168, start = 0 rick@rick-desktop:/Storage$ sudo hdparm -v /dev/sdi /dev/sdi: multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 243201/255/63, sectors = 3907029168, start = 0

hdparm -tT on all the drives gives the following output

sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sd[abcdefghi] /dev/md0 /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 9514 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4760.14 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 354 MB in 3.01 seconds = 117.72 MB/sec /dev/sdb: Timing cached reads: 9388 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4697.20 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 360 MB in 3.00 seconds = 119.92 MB/sec /dev/sdc: Timing cached reads: 9580 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4793.54 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 362 MB in 3.01 seconds = 120.16 MB/sec /dev/sdd: Timing cached reads: 9294 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4651.03 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 340 MB in 3.00 seconds = 113.18 MB/sec /dev/sde: Timing cached reads: 9784 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4895.35 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 346 MB in 3.01 seconds = 114.89 MB/sec /dev/sdf: Timing cached reads: 9392 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4699.48 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 266 MB in 3.01 seconds = 88.39 MB/sec /dev/sdg: Timing cached reads: 9374 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4690.52 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 330 MB in 3.01 seconds = 109.61 MB/sec /dev/sdh: Timing cached reads: 9182 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4593.52 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 312 MB in 3.00 seconds = 103.83 MB/sec /dev/sdi: Timing cached reads: 9068 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4536.44 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 324 MB in 3.01 seconds = 107.80 MB/sec /dev/md0: Timing cached reads: 10670 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5339.49 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 542 MB in 3.01 seconds = 180.35 MB/sec

From the previous test we recall that sdd and sdi were the bottlenecks, but in these tests they run just fine which brings me to the conclusion that the hdparm settings have little bearing on performance. This is because UDMA is being used.

After hooooooours of tinkering and tweaking I saw little consistent improvement, so I will spend no more time on it :) The default settings are pretty good on the modern drives.