Profiling hard disk activity on boot

I've read that adding "profile" to the end of the kernel line menu.lst can speed up boot times in ubuntu, and I was wondering if this can be done under arch.

I think Ubuntu uses this.

Similar Messages

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
If this does not work, then you will have to erase and reinstall Mountain Lion:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

External USB hard disk fails to boot

I installed Arch Linux on an external USB Lacie 1 TB Hard Disk. I followed instructions on WiKi: "install from exisiting linux", method 2, since I already have Linux installed
on the internal HDD of my laptop (dual boot with Windows, also with Grub as bootloader).
Problem: The external HDD stalls during boot right after the "Welcome to Grub!" - message. I can only hard-reset my laptop from there.
The external HDD has msdos Partition Table. It is recognized by BIOS just fine, since I can choose to boot from it. It has following (very simple) partition setup:
[root@arch-laptop chris]# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000c9610
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 40962047 20480000 83 Linux
So there's just the root partition, no boot or home partition defined. Grub installed to the external HDD with no errors.
Here's the grub.cfg auto-generated, without anything adapted. The UUID of the external HDD /dev/sdb1 is correct.
[root@arch-laptop grub]# cat grub.cfg
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then
set default="${next_entry}"
set next_entry=
save_env next_entry
set boot_once=true
else
set default="0"
fi
if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
menuentry_id_option=""
fi
export menuentry_id_option
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
font=unicode
else
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd1,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd1,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd1,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci1,msdos1 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
fi
font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2"
fi
if loadfont $font ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_input console
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
set timeout_style=menu
set timeout=5
# Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is
# unavailable.
else
set timeout=5
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_archlinux ###
menuentry "Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel" --class arch-linux --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
fi
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod ext2
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd1,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd1,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci1,msdos1 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
fi
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348 rw quiet
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel initramfs ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
menuentry "Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel (fallback initramfs)" --class arch-linux --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
fi
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod ext2
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd1,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd1,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci1,msdos1 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
fi
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348 rw quiet
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel fallback initramfs ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
### END /etc/grub.d/10_archlinux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Arch Linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd1,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd1,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd1,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci1,msdos1 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
fi
echo 'Loading Linux linux ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348 rw quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
submenu 'Advanced options for Arch Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348' {
menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-linux-advanced-5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd1,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd1,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd1,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci1,msdos1 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348
fi
echo 'Loading Linux linux ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=5fe1d28c-2640-4b5c-b98b-75d147479348 rw quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
### END /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
the internal HDD (/dev/sda) also has GRUB installed, without any problems, with a graphical console menu.
GRUB version is 2.02
laptop: dv6-6b41ed
Legacy BIOS (no EFI / UEFI).
Any ideas on how to solve / troubleshoot this?
Last edited by christopher72 (2014-04-21 15:05:21)

Any hooks in particular? I don't know which hook to add other then the 'blocks' hook, which is there already:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck"
Also, I don't think that could be the problem since loading the initramfs image takes place after choosing something from the Grub Menu. That menu never appears, I just get "welcome to grub!" with a blinking cursor underneath.
I did add "insmod usbms" in grub.cfg, but that didn't change anything.
What strikes me as odd is that in grub.cfg, the disk is referred to as "hd1", where I think it could just as well be "hd0" if that's the first hard disk the BIOS boots from. But I'm not sure if that really matters since the search is done with the UUID.
Another thing I tested earlier: I dd 'd the Arch Live image to the external usb HDD, and then it boots fine...

High hard disk activity caused by systemd-tmpfile

Hi
I have home server PC running pure, console Archlinux on it 24/7. It works fine for about 3 years and still do, but after systemd transition I noticed that my server periodically runs systemd-tmpfile daemon which causes intensive and continuous hard disk activity.
My /etc/tmpfiles.d is empty, but here is the content of /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d folder:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Sep 20 2012 apache.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Jan 13 17:58 console.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19 Jan 27 06:41 lastlog.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1146 Jan 13 17:58 legacy.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29 Feb 5 11:09 lirc.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24 Mar 5 12:57 mpd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33 Feb 25 19:41 mysqld.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jan 27 09:09 nscd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 51 Feb 25 17:32 samba.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36 Oct 13 19:30 saslauthd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33 Dec 21 16:39 svnserve.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 736 Jan 13 17:58 systemd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 449 Jan 13 17:58 tmp.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Dec 13 15:24 uuidd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 622 Jan 13 17:58 x11.conf
My question is how to know which *.conf file causes such a high HDD activity or how to resolve the problem at all?
Last edited by clovenhoof (2013-03-21 18:20:26)

Ok here is what get with "lsof -c systemd-tmpfile" during this activity:
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
systemd-t 1069 root cwd DIR 8,3 4096 2 /
systemd-t 1069 root rtd DIR 8,3 4096 2 /
systemd-t 1069 root txt REG 8,3 59504 290840 /usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 52144 262523 /usr/lib/libnss_files-2.17.so
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 138206 262495 /usr/lib/libpthread-2.17.so
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 18760 277530 /usr/lib/libattr.so.1.1.0
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 2035539 262449 /usr/lib/libc-2.17.so
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 31744 262453 /usr/lib/librt-2.17.so
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 16776 299945 /usr/lib/libcap.so.2.22
systemd-t 1069 root mem REG 8,3 165436 262497 /usr/lib/ld-2.17.so
systemd-t 1069 root 0r CHR 1,3 0t0 6461 /dev/null
systemd-t 1069 root 1u unix 0xffff8801393df1c0 0t0 23160 socket
systemd-t 1069 root 2u unix 0xffff8801393df1c0 0t0 23160 socket
systemd-t 1069 root 3u unix 0xffff8801393dba80 0t0 23161 socket
systemd-t 1069 root 4r DIR 8,3 9482240 1970431 /var/tmp
systemd-t 1069 root 5r DIR 8,3 4096 793638 /var/tmp/systemd-private-G25Rag

Satellite L655-11J - Hard disk activity all the time

Toshiba please I need help
The first run of my laptop I entered my location my name and a password, I install Toshiba updates and Windows 7 updates (the notifications I got) then I noticed the hard drive is active all the time and the laptop is very slow. I tried a lot to restore the original Toshiba image the built in the laptop and I finally did it thinking maybe I did something wrong
The hard disk drive still always active (don't know what reading or writing) no monitoring for any activity the laptop very slow and lot of seeking sounds.
any solution please, I got this problem the first use of it :(

I know it has a guarantee and they will replace it for free, but it was a gift from Saudi Arabia, I'm now in Syria :( I've to wait until on of my relative go back there :D
I went to Toshiba in Syria they charge my 7 $ to tell me the hard is defective although I knew it was so, and I will need to pay 100$ for a replacement so I will wait ;)
thanks all, it was my mistake, it is just I noticed the HDD light always on in windows 7 and it was not on in USB Linux so I thought it was a system problem, I didn't have much time to work on it and make tests :D
I'm sorry again

Hard Disk Won't Boot - Recovering Data w/ Live CD

Hey guys,
I have a MacBook.
My operating system got corrupted. I can't boot into it. I also have a tiny Linux partition installed, which can boot totally fine (therefore, not a hardware problem).
I booted into a Linux Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD, and was able to see my hard disk partitions as accessible. I could navigate to the Ubuntu partition, and see the data there.
HERE'S THE THING:
I can also access my OS X partition, and see the data. The problem is that some of the folders I can open just fine, while others have a tiny red circle in the top-right of the icon. When I try to open those ones, it says that I don't have permission.
Is there a way around this?
I am trying to rescue my data before wiping the hard drive.
I have already tried repairing permissions with the original install disk, and it won't work. I have tried booting in FireWire target-disk-mode, and it won't work. I have tried using DiskWarrior, and it worked only enough to tell me it won't work.
The Apple support guy said to try this Linux Live CD. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Hey dude,
Thanks again for the followup help.
I have done a million diagnostics, here is a short list:
Tried booting resetting PRAM - nothing.
Tried booting in Verbose mode, nothing
Single-user mode, nothing
Safe mode, nothing
Nothing will boot.
I have Ubuntu installed on a different partition which boots totally fine, so it's definitely not a hardware failure. Apple said this as well.
I boot into the install DVD, and run the Disk Utility FIrst Aid. It can't repair the disk, and gives me errors.
The hard drive is nearly full, so there's not 15GB free to do a Archive and Reinstall the OS.
Apple said that the OS is corrupt, and I have to recover the data and wipe and reinstall.
I tried booting in target disk mode, and the host computer can't find the target mac (I tested it with 3 different macs and the cable works and everything else works fine). Apple said this is probably due to the "headers and footers" of the partition being hard to read.
I tried DiskWarrior, and at first it DID find the disk and data, and it said IT COULD RECOVER IT. I did a hardware test and it was fine. I did the permission repair, and then it found all my data and allowed me to browse it before recovering it, but it also gave me errors. Then it said that it COULD NOT recover it. When I tried to run the recover, it said first to reboot. After rebooting, it said that it couldn't even find the Mac hard disk at all, let alone repair it.
Then after trying to boot again as normal, instead of simply staying at the permanent "boot up" screen, it goes to a gray screen with a black message that says "Please reboot your computer".
I am able to boot from an Ubuntu Live CD, and I can even see my Mac disk as accesible. I mount it and can browse SOME of the data, but other folders it says I don't have permission to access. Unfortunately, it's the locked ones that I need the data from.
I didn't put any extra locks on these folders in OS X than the other folders that I can access, so it's nothing like that.
Any ideas?

Brand new 27" iMac with Snow Leopard has constant hard disk activity

I just purchased a new 27" iMac which was an upgrade for my 24" with Leopard. I have used my older machine for a good year and not noticed any hard drive activity when idle.
Now on the new machine with Snow Leopard I constantly get hard disk activty every few seconds.
This will happen from:
1) Restart
2) leaving at login screen
3) loggin in and not running anything.
4) Computer screen in sleep mode.
5) well, all the time really.
I have looked at the activity monitor and can see spikes every 5-10 seconds.
I have turned off all processes possible, watched processes for CPU spikes, etc to no avail.
Is anyone else having the same problem and if so can they suggest a fix? I originally thought it may be something writing to a log every so often but I have no idea what and how to find it.
Using iStat just confirms the activity.
Hope you can help as this is driving me mad!
Message was edited by: RedDwarfUK

RedDwarfUK wrote:
I havent really installed much as well. Here are the list of programs I have installed.
Adium
Firefox
New icons
app cleaner
skype
spotify
chicken of the VNC
GoToMeeting
Cisco VPN Client
Xmarks for safari and firefox
I would start by checking each of these items, making sure you have the latest versions of each & that they are compatible with Snow Leopard. Do the same for any Firefox extensions or any plugins associated with any of these applications. In particular, chicken of the VNC hasn't been updated since 2006 & what little compatibility info I can find for it suggests it supports only Tiger (10.4) & 10.3.9. The Download Xmarks page indicates that it is beta software.
Also note that some of these items may do more than just run as applications. On first run or install, some might install startup or login items, or preference panels that remain in effect even when the application is not running. Check /Library/StartupItems & /System/Library/StartupItems -- both are empty by default, so anything you find in them is suspect. Likewise, check the System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items tab. Anything you find in them that does not appear to come from Apple (like iTunes helper) is suspect. Also check the "Other" category of System Preferences.

Wake up: tons of hard disk activity

When the computer is unattended and goes to sleep to save power, there is an insane disk activity during wake up, combined with tons of freezes, etc.
I am not talking about the deep sleep / hibernation where data gets saved to the disk; I'm talking about leaving the computer unattended 20 minutes and then wasting 2-3 minutes until it's done doing whatever with the disk when I wake it up.
Everything is still in ram, I'm constantly waiting for.. whatever happens.
Any idea what the OS might be doing and, especially, how to improve it, if possible?

After checking more closely, it seems like the system is tied by two services:
- syncdefaultd
- cfprefsd
they go crazy after the wake up and tie up the hard drive and freeze the machine. Any idea what it could be for?

Unusual hard disk activity after "Erase free space"

I have two partitions on my hard disk - a small partition for the system software and a big partition for everything else. A few days ago, I backed up a few files from my big partition and then used Disk Utility "Erase free space". Since then, my hard disk is behaving oddly. I can hear it, as if it continuously reading and writting data. At first, I thought it was an auto-update in progress or some sort of automatic system maintenance. But the odd behavior never stopped. I scanned my files with an anti-virus software - nothing wrong. I scanned my files with Disk Utility - nothing wrong. I used Onyx to check the system - nothing wrong. I even erased and reinstalled the system software - no changes! So what could possibly force my hard disk to behave like that? Is something messed up because of "Erase free space"?

You could run fs_usage
To view file activity for all processes with the fs_usage tool, you would enter the following at the Terminal prompt.
sudo fs_usage
If you wanted to limit the display to files accessed by a particular process, you could redirect the output through the grep tool. For example, to display file behavior for the TextEdit application, you would enter the following at the Terminal prompt:
% sudo fs_usage | grep TextEdit
Once your application finishes launching, stop fs_usage by typing Control-C in your Terminal window.
Look for all writes. Might be mdworker (Spotlight)
Try reindexing Spotlight by dragging the HD icon into the Privacy window. Leave it there for a minute and remove it using the minus button.

Hard Disk activity slows machine down

Hi,
I have 4 hard drives in my MacPro and when a disk is very busy regardless of which one, the machine grinds to a halt.
For example, A Parallels VM, which is stored on a separate drive to the boot drive, was flogging the hard disk and my machine ground to a halt until Parallels finished using the drive. It's not the drive the VM was stored on that is problem because I bought a new faster drive and moved the VM there.
I have 4gb of ram
Any ideas?

4GB files on a 32-bit kernel and you run into what I call a bottleneck.
More RAM helps; and using dual RAID0's also allows for more I/O.
2GB left over falls into the anemia category.
The system drive from other experiments, tests, and benchmarks, does a lot more than just sit there and feed up applications.
And just as a fast SSD or 10K drive, or setting those up in RAID0, offers 240-500MB/sec, your memory bandwidth also plays a role.
When working with 2GB files in CS2 and later, arrays for every volume + whatever RAM you can throw at it helps.
Some operations are still single-thread and hold everything up, when you export or save or write to disk RAID makes up for some of that. A file is written out as temp file, old file is renamed, and when done deleted, while the directory and index are updated. And Spotlight rather than wait for things to be done, CAN get in the way while you work.
I don't know the full gist, but back in G3/G4, SCSI arrays made a big enough difference that I splurged on the full setup (two dual channel controllers driving 15K and 10K drives). And without? it was a real tortoise.
If you think 2GB is 'enough' to run OS X alone, let alone Safari, iTunes, Pages or office apps, let alone any pro apps or ones that need some RAM... CS4+ should have an 8GB system.
And the RAM needs of a Mac Pro have just never been as low or comparable to your desktop or laptop system.
But stay with 4GB if you don't mind.

Dconf editor window and hard disk activity

Hello,
For quite some time for me, moving the dconf-editor window causes significant hard drive activity. I don't know why, but moving the window makes the hard drive work hard, and cpu load goes up sharply. Does this happen for anyone else? The hard drive continues working for a fair bit after stopping movement of the window. No other window does such a thing...

4GB files on a 32-bit kernel and you run into what I call a bottleneck.
More RAM helps; and using dual RAID0's also allows for more I/O.
2GB left over falls into the anemia category.
The system drive from other experiments, tests, and benchmarks, does a lot more than just sit there and feed up applications.
And just as a fast SSD or 10K drive, or setting those up in RAID0, offers 240-500MB/sec, your memory bandwidth also plays a role.
When working with 2GB files in CS2 and later, arrays for every volume + whatever RAM you can throw at it helps.
Some operations are still single-thread and hold everything up, when you export or save or write to disk RAID makes up for some of that. A file is written out as temp file, old file is renamed, and when done deleted, while the directory and index are updated. And Spotlight rather than wait for things to be done, CAN get in the way while you work.
I don't know the full gist, but back in G3/G4, SCSI arrays made a big enough difference that I splurged on the full setup (two dual channel controllers driving 15K and 10K drives). And without? it was a real tortoise.
If you think 2GB is 'enough' to run OS X alone, let alone Safari, iTunes, Pages or office apps, let alone any pro apps or ones that need some RAM... CS4+ should have an 8GB system.
And the RAM needs of a Mac Pro have just never been as low or comparable to your desktop or laptop system.
But stay with 4GB if you don't mind.

Program For Logging Hard Disk Activity

Hey Everyone,
I am having an issue with a server in which the Hard disks keep failing, within the last year 3 of them have died.
I am in need of a program that can record logs of the hard drive activity overnight, a period of about 12 hours. This will help us track down at what time the issue is occuring, and then what is causing it. Something similar to the built-in windows hard
disk monitor is task manager, but with the ability to record would be perfect. I have tried other programs but they log in text, and it would take hours of looking through the logs to find any abnormalities
Does anyone know of such a software?

Might give this a go.
DiskMon for Windows v2.01
Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Display shivers on Hard Disk activity

Hello all,
The problem I have has been discussed here before. The display of my eMac shivers when the Hard Disk is accessed. The problems started after I replaced the IVAD cable to fix the raster shift problem (which I do not experience anymore). So far I have read on this forum that more people have experienced the same problem. But what I am interested in is a fix for this problem! It seems to be some kind of shielding problem. Could this also be related to the IVAD cable? I do believe that simply adding shielding at the right place should fix the problem, but where? Maybe anyone else has already experimented on finding a fix for this problem and is willing to share any ideas.
Regards,
Bart Dubelaar

4GB files on a 32-bit kernel and you run into what I call a bottleneck.
More RAM helps; and using dual RAID0's also allows for more I/O.
2GB left over falls into the anemia category.
The system drive from other experiments, tests, and benchmarks, does a lot more than just sit there and feed up applications.
And just as a fast SSD or 10K drive, or setting those up in RAID0, offers 240-500MB/sec, your memory bandwidth also plays a role.
When working with 2GB files in CS2 and later, arrays for every volume + whatever RAM you can throw at it helps.
Some operations are still single-thread and hold everything up, when you export or save or write to disk RAID makes up for some of that. A file is written out as temp file, old file is renamed, and when done deleted, while the directory and index are updated. And Spotlight rather than wait for things to be done, CAN get in the way while you work.
I don't know the full gist, but back in G3/G4, SCSI arrays made a big enough difference that I splurged on the full setup (two dual channel controllers driving 15K and 10K drives). And without? it was a real tortoise.
If you think 2GB is 'enough' to run OS X alone, let alone Safari, iTunes, Pages or office apps, let alone any pro apps or ones that need some RAM... CS4+ should have an 8GB system.
And the RAM needs of a Mac Pro have just never been as low or comparable to your desktop or laptop system.
But stay with 4GB if you don't mind.

Why my mouse pointer often freeze during heavy hard disk activity?

Hi!
My mouse pointer often freeze during heavy disk activity: copying files, extracting archives, downloading and encrypting files from mega.co.nz, etc. The whole system becomes unresponsive. Currently I am using linux-pf kernel with BFS scheduler and I/O scheduler elevator BFQ. What can I do to avoid this annoyance?

Konstantin_hu wrote:Only 200 MB of swap space of 4 GB is in use.
Swap space is extremely slow, so you don't want it to be used except as a last resort. Try in /etc/sysctl.conf:
vm.swappiness=0

"constant hard disk activity by Firefox with some websites like hotmail"

With some websites the hard disc noisily operates continually and MS task manager shows almost 100% memory useage. The furious activity stops about 30 sec after the website closes. YouTube and iView show similar response. FF 9.0.1 XP3 clear cache and cookies - no effect Internet suggested disable Java plugin 1.6.0 no effect

See [[Secure Connection Failed]]
Create a new profile exclusively for the 4.0 beta version and create a desktop shortcut with -P "profile" appended to the target to launch that profile.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_pre-release_versions
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a_specific_profile
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox

Profiling hard disk activity on boot

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