Quantum FireballPlus Problem?

[Guest]

Well, I finally got to ask myself whether my HDD has a problem. I have a system configurred like this: MB - MSI K7T Turbo, CPU - Athlon/1.33 GHz, 256 MB SDRAM PCI 133, GeForce 2 MX 200, CD-ROM Sony 52x, CD-Writer Sony CRX-160e.
I have a Quantum FireballPlus / 40 GB at 7200 RPM which is partitioned in seven partitions (first one is 8 GB and the rest are 5 GB each). My OS is installed on partition I: because I previously had Win98 installed. I have 4 FAT32 partitions (C, D, E, H) and three NTFS partitions (F, G, I).

And here's the prob: I use a lot of copying to HDD because I make a lot of data backups. When copying entire CDs to HDD or large amounts of data from a mounted HDD or from a partition to another on my HDD, it works fine, but right after I finish copying data, it begins working a lot and all software runs like I have a 486 DX2 as CPU. HDD led is always lit up and the HDD works really hard. My OS is Windows XP with all updates downloaded. I have installed specific IDE Drivers for MB and still the problem remains. I don't know what to do because writing backups right after copying is impossible (buffer underrun) as my HDD rumbles and mumbles continuously when I start even small programs such as Windows Commander. I have to restart and burn Cds afterwards. Can anyone help me out so I know how the hell to fix this problem?

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[Lars_Coleman]

Go into your task manager and see what is taking the CPU processes and what could be writing to the drive. Kill that task or find a resolution for that specific task.

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>

 

[blue_heart]

you are facing the same what i face........i have daily backup of 500mb and when the bakcup finishs the entire system goes very heavy and slow.

i use quantum fireball plus with amd tb1gh and 384mb sdram pc133.

i posted the same problem in www.storagereview.com but no one was able to help me......they told me go to taks manager and check the ram and where it goes, and if the available ram exceed the limit then you have to add more ram........this is not true as i think coz if i have 2gb then i have to add 2.5gb ram? no way.

some other said check your page file size and increase it, i did that with no help.

when the backup finishs the avialable ram+mem usage exceeds in size the total ram and the system cahche is big too (not less than 250mb).

i think it is software problem more than hardware or physical problem, i mean it is not the problem of our HD but since i am using the built in backup on win2k then i think it is not freeing properly the page file content and the ram.

i wish to find a solution........soon i will try to backup only 200mb and will see the effect

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Guest]

I did it from the very beginning, the CPU is generally 1% loaded. There's no process eating CPU time. There's something else weird: The amount of free memory (which is usually around 51% to 64%) drops continuously while copying. Seems like the OS is trying to copy the whole amount of data into memory, this happens all the time, regardless I copy 10,000 small files or one single giant database file. I had 512 MB of memory installed for a day but increasing the RAM size didn't help either. So...

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[camieabz]

Do you have write behind caching enabled?

<b><font color=blue>The Cisco Kid</font color=blue></b>

 

[blue_heart]

if he does not have write cache enabled then i have it, but i am sure he has it as well.

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Guest]

Of course I do, I have write-behind cache enabled, it's set. Still, the problem remains. The disk is VERY slow after copying...

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[svol]

You can use Cacheman to optimise it:
<A HREF="http://www.outertech.com" target="_new">http://www.outertech.com</A>.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[blue_heart]

svol.....thanks, it seems the cacheman improved the situation, i got my system back faster than before.
i have the same backup tomorrow and i will notice it better than today

thanks again

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Guest]

Seems like someone got to solve the problem. Unfortunately, it's not my case, but I've seen what actually happens. It's idiotic. When copying a large file (745 MB in this case), windows tries to put the whole damn file in memory! Of course it does the most stupid thing ever seen by me in IT: WinXP uses the swap file to put there all the currently running programs (including DLLs and so), eventually I think it puts the copied file itself to swap! It should copy the file in segments of a certain dimension each, but no, it takes the whole burden and tries to "carry the cross". And once the file is copied, when I click to maximize a running program or run a new one, Windows reloads all the necessary files from swap. Jesus, this is really insane!
Cacheman succeeded only in making it worse. Free memory size drops fast, copying process slows down dramatically, it took about 9:30 minutes to copy 745 from a partition to another! This is about 1.2 MB/s which is damn slow! Not to mention the after-effects!
I am sorry, Svol, but Cacheman doesn't help a bit (quite the other way!).
But now I know what the freaking problem is. It's the OS managing memory like a Neanderthal man does. Still, the problem remains... I have clues but no means to fix this as I don't know how to tell XP to manage files somehow else.

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[svol]

Have you checked it DMA is enabled for your HD?

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[blue_heart]

svol.....it has nothing to do with the dma enabled....it is the same case with both of us.

i suggest you try to copy about 500mb from one partiotion to another ro same partiotion but another directory and you will see what will happen

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Guest]

Of course I have it enabled, well, to be clear, I work in IT for nine years now and I have the system settings perfectly tweaked for HDD heavy work. Still, I have a problem...

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[Guest]

Blue_heart you are right, it slows down my system A LOT. It's a nitemare, restarting the system all the time. It slows down my work, it's annoying and it ruins CD-Rs.

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[svol]

Yesterday I did the following: copying 2 GB of MP3 from my old ATA33 disk to my ATA66 Backup disk (on different IDE cable) while doing this the progress seems to get slower and slower IF doing nothing, but when I started to surf a little over the Internet the copying accelareted and was done in a couple of minutes instead of the 100 minutes Win98 said it would last. There is something wrong with Windows while copying files thats for sure.

Sorry if I insulted you War4peace.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[blue_heart]

svol........surely there is something wrong in the windows, frankly saying while it was doing the backup of 0.5gb today and running chacheman the problem still exist althought a bit less than before but it is still exist.

cahceman is slowing the copy speed.

when i watch the task manager (win2k) i find the free memory going to 4mb out of 200mb and the system chace is increasing, and when the backup finish the system cache will be about 320mb (the physical ram is 384mb) and the free ram is 200mb and the memory is use is about 120mb (free memory and memory is use sizes depend on what other programs are open).......therefore there is something worng going on......you will find after the backup/copy that your total memory (free+in use) is greater than your original memory size........really strange

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Ncogneto]

You need to optimize your swap file by setting it at the very begining of the fastest drive. Second, for large transfers like you are doing you would be much better off with a second drive on a seperate channel. Also, adding another 256 of SDRAM would also help ( your running on the edge with 256 and win2k). Your working the poor heads on your one axtor drive to death by copying sunch large files from one partition to another on the same drive, think about it.... It needs to read the data from one partition, then move it to swap, then move it to another partition again, all on the same drive.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[blue_heart]

it is not a problem of data being copied slow, but when the copy finish the computer went very slow. so there is something wrong in the operating system

wish if there was UnDo in the life

 

[Guest]

I have swap on all seven partitions. 192 MB permanent swap (manually set) on my OS Partition and all the others partition are assigned 64 MB Swap-file each. I have set them this way to have a big enough swap space. And ncognito, no, I don't usually copy data from a partition to another. I mainly copy data from CDs and other HDDs (rarely LAN or through DCC). I have optimized my disks and swap file using Norton Utilities 2002. Seems the problem remains. I run Speed Disk weekly so my partitions are all optimized. So this shouldn't be a problem. Furthermore, I have had 512 MB RAM until two weeks ago (we are in the process of upgrading to DDR, hope that within a month the upgrade will be complete on all comps). So what else should I do except for buying a second HDD?

Blue_Heart, u are right. I think it's the OS too. Contacting Microsoft had as a result zippo. No answer. i cannot use another OS (no license). So... thet means I'll have to handle the nitemare... or maybe there's another solution, but I cannot figure out which should it be.

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[Guest]

I have swap on all seven partitions. 192 MB permanent swap (manually set) on my OS Partition and all the others partition are assigned 64 MB Swap-file each. I have set them this way to have a big enough swap space. And ncognito, no, I don't usually copy data from a partition to another. I mainly copy data from CDs and other HDDs (rarely LAN or through DCC). I have optimized my disks and swap file using Norton Utilities 2002. Seems the problem remains. I run Speed Disk weekly so my partitions are all optimized. So this shouldn't be a problem. Furthermore, I have had 512 MB RAM until two weeks ago (we are in the process of upgrading to DDR, hope that within a month the upgrade will be complete on all comps). So what else should I do except for buying a second HDD?

Blue_Heart, u are right. I think it's the OS too. Contacting Microsoft had as a result zippo. No answer. i cannot use another OS (no license). So... thet means I'll have to handle the nitemare... or maybe there's another solution, but I cannot figure out which should it be.

I wish my brain was an Athlon XP

 

[camieabz]

i cannot use another OS (no license).

Hmmm. [cough] Heh.

<b><font color=blue>The Cisco Kid</font color=blue></b>