Re: Defrag? Constant HD accessing?

stan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: I'm using Fedora Core 3 on a PC. Formatted in ext3.
: I know defragging isn't necessary in an ext3 format. But, is there some
: other reason why the HD is having to read and write constatntly, and
: the system is so slow while the hard drive is chugging heavily away?
: It's a P-4 2.8MHz, 512MB RAM, and a 80GB 7200 HD. So, the hardware
: isn't bad. I don't see why it's having to read/write the HD constantly
: whenever, for example, the system is coming up from being on screen
: saver for an hour or so. It can take literally 10 minutes of constant
: HD access and extremely slow system usage.
: Anyway, just wondering if there are any tips and tricks that can help
: with this.
: Thanks!
: -Liam

How much free space is on the disk? No matter what the zealots say
if the disk is highly fragmented and nearly full it can get pretty nasty.

More likely though you have a process that is indexing the disk
or some such. Look to see what is running during this slow period.

Another possibility is if you run a large process that is going deep into
swap. Are you running any large processes?

and-- for completeness -- the last time I saw something like this
was on a Linux system that I later found had been hacked. The malware
was periodically searching the disk and attempting to email info
off to some site. You _might_ try disconnecting the LAN and
seeing if it makes any difference. Not likely but can't hurt
to check.

Another thing to check is that there is an automount feature in many Linux
distributions that examine mountable devices such as CD-ROM and Floppy
drives every second or two to see if you put a disk in or took one out. And
these (at least used to) write something to the dmesg deque and sometimes to
a system log as well. I solved that by turning the automount off as I do not
like it anyway. This was so long ago that I forgot how to do it.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 11:00:01 up 14 days, 12:12, 3 users, load average: 4.15, 4.18, 4.18
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Defrag? Constant HD accessing?
    ... I know defragging isn't necessary in an ext3 format. ... if the disk is highly fragmented and nearly full it can get pretty nasty. ... It doesn't access the swap very offten. ... but I'll keep a closer eye on top. ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Defrag? Constant HD accessing?
    ... I know defragging isn't necessary in an ext3 format. ... if the disk is highly fragmented and nearly full it can get pretty nasty. ... Look to see what is running during this slow period. ... Stan Bischof ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: File on disk- encrypted or not?
    ... > an MS-DOS bootable floppy and use direct disk I/O functions to directly ... Whenever potential attackers have physical access to the hardware there ... On a linux system, you could keep the ... system in a locked server room and have your users connect remotely via x ...
    (comp.os.linux.security)
  • Re: Disk Image backup in linux
    ... linux system, still running as far as I know. ... >> echo insert DVD 2, ... If the header of the movie has some indication of length. ... However it saves any authoring (if it is only one movie per disk you need ...
    (comp.os.linux.development.apps)
  • Re: How to add another harddrive with Kubuntu .......
    ... On 3 Jul 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article ... Hard Disk Upgrade Mini HOWTO ... How to copy a Linux system from one hard disk to ...
    (comp.os.linux.x)