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.


Hmm, good question. I have 7GB left, but that's 91% of the drive used.
I've heard that you really need to keep 15% free. So, I'll start by
clearing some stuff off the drive.
Thanks for the suggestions!

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.


Good question.
Both "top" and "ps aux" have a HUGE list of stuff! But top only have a
cpouple of items above 1% CPU and it's like gnome and X and xmms and
soffice. I'll keep an eye on it, and especially when I find the HD
starts it's minutes of chugging I'll see what's up there.

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


The largest is soffice. It doesn't access the swap very offten. But the
HD can do its constant chattering without any seemingly large processes
running, but I'll keep a closer eye on top.

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.

Thanks for the suggestion!
I'll give that a try!
Thanks for the feedback,
Liam

.

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. ... Look to see what is running during this slow period. ... Stan Bischof ...
    (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. ... was on a Linux system that I later found had been hacked. ... Another thing to check is that there is an automount feature in many Linux ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Defrag? Constant HD accessing?
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    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Defrag? Constant HD accessing?
    ... I know defragging isn't necessary in an ext3 format. ... other reason why the HD is having to read and write constatntly, ... Sounds like you have too little swap for the ... But half a gig of ram really ought to be enough. ...
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