[buug] IDE drive problem

[grayarea at reddagger.org]

Folks,

I have an ide problem I am having problems figuring out. I am working with a client's Proliant ML350 running RH 8. The main storage here is handled by a scsi raid. For various reasons, we installed a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus ultra ATA/133 7200/160gb.

I am getting incredibly bad performance out of this subsystem. As in:

[root at foghorn /]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.26 seconds =492.31 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in 35.58 seconds =  1.80 MB/sec

I have tried switching pretty much every mode of dma and udma the drive supports, and still no joy. The bios for this particular server, doesn't appear to have any dma settings.

the hdparm information for the drive reports:

 Model=WDC WD2500JB-00EVA0, FwRev=15.05R15, SerialNo=WD-WMAEH2188747
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=74
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: device does not report version:  1 2 3 4 5 6

If anyone has a clue what is wrong with this picture, and why I am getting such abysmal performance, could you point me in the right direction on fixing it?

John P. Withers