Slow hdd performance

Question

Ok I did some research and still can't figure out why writing/reading speed is so slow in practice
hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1012 MB in 2.00 seconds = 506.11 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 336 MB in 3.01 seconds = 111.58 MB/sec
With dd I get ~10 MB/s (dd if=/dev/zero of=/test bs=100M count=10)
Internally copy from mc 5-6 MB/s
I did multiple tests
What is going on here?
hdparm -I /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST31000520AS
Serial Number: 5VX0WRYD
Firmware Revision: CC32
Transport: Serial
Standards:
Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0029)
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 1953525168
Logical/Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 953869 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 1000204 MBytes (1000 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5900
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Advanced power management level: 192
Recommended acoustic management value: 254, current value: 254
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Advanced Power Management feature set
Power-Up In Standby feature set
SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
SET_MAX security extension
* Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
* 64-bit World wide name
Write-Read-Verify feature set
* WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
* {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Phy event counters
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
* SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
* SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
* SCT Features Control (AC4)
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
188min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 188min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5000c500250e4711
NAA : 5
IEEE OUI : 000c50
Unique ID : 0250e4711
Checksum: correct
smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [i686-linux-3.2.13-1-ARCH] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, [url]http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net[/url]
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda LP
Device Model: ST31000520AS
Serial Number: 5VX0WRYD
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0250e4711
Firmware Version: CC32
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1,00 TB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 4
Local Time is: Fri Mar 30 00:45:54 2012 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 623) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 219) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x103f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 119 099 006 Pre-fail Always - 216824470
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 096 096 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 526
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 3
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 077 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 58496816
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 084 084 000 Old_age Always - 14481
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 037 020 Old_age Always - 265
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 098 000 Old_age Always - 8590065682
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 070 054 045 Old_age Always - 30 (Min/Max 18/31)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 030 046 000 Old_age Always - 30 (0 16 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 039 021 000 Old_age Always - 216824470
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 199 000 Old_age Always - 9
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 152454159153810
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 3670022033
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 448914133
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14007 -
# 2 Extended offline Interrupted (host reset) 00% 13651 -
# 3 Extended offline Aborted by host 90% 8256 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 310 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
cat /etc/fstab
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sr0 /mnt/cd iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0
UUID=934647db-14d1-4641-820c-e42c0f63c0e5 /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/lvm-home /home ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2
/dev/mapper/lvm-root / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/mapper/lvm-swap swap swap defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noatime,nodev,nosuid,noexec,size=1536M 0 0
/dev/mapper/data /mnt/data ext4 acl,user_xattr,noatime 0 2
dmesg | grep ata
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000001f5d7000 - 000000001f5d9000 (ACPI data)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000001f600000 - 000000001f608000 (ACPI data)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 481496k/515072k available (3766k kernel code, 31608k reserved, 1441k data, 524k init, 0k highmem)
[ 0.000000] .data : 0xc04ad9d5 - 0xc06160c0 (1441 kB)
[ 14.174799] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 1112k
[ 14.661110] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[ 14.684788] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xffe40000 port 0xffe40100 irq 45
[ 14.684809] ata2: DUMMY
[ 14.684826] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xffe40000 port 0xffe40200 irq 45
[ 14.684842] ata4: DUMMY
[ 14.685022] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: version 2.13
[ 14.685081] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 14.685243] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: setting latency timer to 64
[ 14.699846] scsi4 : ata_piix
[ 14.705173] scsi5 : ata_piix
[ 14.715618] ata5: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xf100 irq 14
[ 14.715642] ata6: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xf108 irq 15
[ 15.006827] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 15.008016] ata1.00: ATA-8: ST31000520AS, CC32, max UDMA/133
[ 15.008034] ata1.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
[ 15.009380] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 15.013441] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 40.720777] EXT4-fs (dm-1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 59.246412] EXT4-fs (dm-3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 59.339759] EXT4-fs (dm-4): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: acl,user_xattr
EDIT: Replaced quote with code - ngoonee
EDIT: Ok, sorry - miskoala
Last edited by miskoala (2012-03-30 08:18:09)

Answer 1

I booted this drive from another computer (Asrock M3A770DE mobo) and works fine, speed with dd was ~100MB/s
I also update bios on my first computer with Intel D945GSEJT (there is selected AHCI mode) still the same transfers with dd (~10Mb/s)
I have no idea what to do with it now
EDIT:
More tests with other hdd (Samsung HD502IJ), dd on mounted NTFS partition:
Intel D945GSEJT booted from Archlinux iso:
hdparm: ~75 MB/s
dd: ~10 MB/s
Intel D945GSEJT booted from Archlinux iso, HDD connected to PCI SATA controller (Promise 378):
hdparm: ~60 MB/s
dd: ~10 MB/s
Asrock M3A770DE booted from Archlinux iso:
hdparm: ~87 MB/s
dd: ~76 MB/s
Asrock M3A770DE booted from Archlinux iso, HDD connected to PCI SATA controller (Promise 378):
hdparm: ~81MB/s
dd: ~76 MB/s
What is broken on D945GSEJT?
Last edited by miskoala (2012-03-30 13:47:23)