Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : 2nd HD sped up my box a lot


daWabbit
10-18-2000, 03:19 PM
My K6-2 500 box (overclocked to 616 and stable that way on Linux, though not so much on Win 98 in dual boot config) was configured with everything mounted on /, using a second hd (b). SuSE 6.2 did that when I installed it and the more recent install of Debian Potato was done the same way. The drive is only 2.5 gigs, though, and /usr soon took up almost all the free space left at install time.
The cure I chose was to put a third drive in (second Linux drive) and move /usr there in it's entirety. This one is a 2.1 Seagate. (I get all these drives others think are too small for nothing or a favor, so I use them.)
Anyway, it's a little weird to hear both drives churning away, but it worked well and my seti times dropped another 7% on average, too. So I repartitioned hdd to include a swap of 120 megs, prioritized at -2, where the swap on hdb is at -1. Seti times dropped again, by 5% (average of 10 and so not definitive, but hopefully indicative.
Final configuration is 2 drives. /, /boot and a 120 meg swap on hdb and /usr with a 120 meg swap on hdd. Swaps are at the beginning of the drives (excepting the 8 meg /boot on hdb), both swaps are prioritized to -1, which hopefully lets the system choose the nearest/fastest one.
Since I started experimenting with this, seti times have dropped almost 17% from the last long term config. So you might consider adding a drive, if you can. Just a thought.

Sterling
10-18-2000, 05:07 PM
Adding a second hard disk can make quite a difference in system performance, depending on what you put on it. Even partitioning a single disk can make a big difference. IIRC, most really big servers use a bunch of small to medium sized SCSI disks.

------------------
-Sterling
-This post made with the Lizard! (http://www.mozilla.org)

vodka
10-23-2000, 11:49 AM
you didnt want to try to make a raid 0 array?
That could be sweet, 2 drives, raid 0, reiserFS. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

blackwolf_c
12-26-2000, 08:45 PM
.....

so.....
I am guessing that a much slower say 2000MB hard drive for swap would speed my system up?
I run basic stuff in linux, I mean in X, have a duron 600 with 256MB RAM and a Quantum fireball LCT10 20GB ATA/66.....
would using a mode 4 2GB WD drive for anything help? /? /usr? swap? 256MB is a lot of ram for what little I do in linux....
a little advice?

sorry I had said 200 I mean 2000 near the top, corrected now.....

please email me with any advice/comments/whatever... i dont re-read threads much...

[This message has been edited by blackwolf_c (edited 26 December 2000).]