hdparm under Mandrake 9.0

[DuckOfDeath]

In the past, I've used hdparm to maximize how Linux uses my hard drive. It doesn't seem to be a part of the Mandrake 9.0 distribution, so I downloaded and installed it. When I try to put the command as part of the /etc/rc.d/rc.local, it doesn't seem to execute. What is the difference between /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.d/rc.local? Which one should I modify? What am I doing wrong? Or is there a newer, better way than hdparm?

Thank You for any help you can provide!
Travis

[carlywarly]

There's a much easier way in Mandrake. Go into /etc/sysconfig. You should see a file called harddisks. It contains all the info to set up your hard drive under hdparm. If you want different settings for different drives, you can create a new text file called harddiskb or c or d. You just copy the contents of harddisks into it, and uncomment the stuff you need. During boot, these files are used to set dma etc on each hard drive individually. If you just leave harddisks as you single file, they all get set the same.

[DuckOfDeath]

Thank you for your help - unfortunately, I do not seem to have that file - is it something I can just create, and would you have an example of what syntax I could use?

Thank you again for your help!
Travis

[carlywarly]

If you have hdparm installed, that file should be there. Open kpackage, and make sure it is installed, then look at the file list to see where harddisks is.

[DuckOfDeath]

Very cool - thanks again for your help!