RAID 0 slow as turtle in mud

[JaiKnight]

Urr....yes...
Anyways, I've found a slight problem with my system. First off, here's what I have:

P3-800EB
Asus CUSL2
512MB Infineon PC133 RAM
2x 30GB IBM 75GXP HDDs in RAID 0 via modded Promise ATA66 card
2x 3Com NICs (one 3C905b, one 3C900)
GeForce2 GTS
Turtle Beach Montego

Now, I have my system setup and everything, seems to be going smoothly...but EVERYTIME I am writing to my drives, it takes WAAAYY longer than normal to write. I know that software RAID 0 takes CPU processes, but when I open up system monitor while it's writing to the drives, it will stay at 100% usage continuously. This isn't the same for reads however, it stays just under 45% for reads.

I discovered this when I was trying to grab some large files from a friend's HD over the network across a 10/100 hub. It was taking a very long time (around 30min for a CD's worth) When my other friend on the network had transferred it in around 10min.

There is definitely something fishy when my HDDs write slower than a 4x burner can write!

Does anybody know if this is normal? Even duping a folder in the same drives takes longer than normal.

I'm using the latest drivers and BIOS from Promise, and nothing else seems to be going wrong (although the time calculations for transfers is very erratic, jumping around between 10-115min for that transfer).

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Modeps]

thats really weird, theres no reason at all for the cpu usage to be up to 100% unless perhaps something else is screwing with it... i dunno man, wish i could help.

 

[BearX00]

The only thing i can guess is that it is the software RAID. ive never worked with that but i imagine it must take a lot of resources to simulate a raid0 array. i guess try turning it off and then see how it works. that will help you narrow your problem, if you must have RAID, i advise that you get an add on card, or a mobo with RAID capabilities

 

[MrCraphead]

Well, his set up isn't software, he's using a hardware card.

I'm willing to bet it's either the modding on your card. Perhaps it wasn't done right, or maybe you should try switching PCI slots. Just a suggestion.....I would say go and find the diagnostic utility that ships with Promise cards, but I don't know if it would work the same with your hard modded version.

 

[BearX00]

oops my bad, "I know that software RAID 0 takes CPU processes" that confused me

 

[DaddyG]

You were right the first time. The Promise IDE RAID still uses plenty of CPU cycles for the RAID function (thats what the Promise drivers do). If the RAID is functioning at all, then the mod must work. The only thing that the mod does, is to force an address line on the BIOS chip. (the RAID BIOS starts at a different address to the Regular bios). IBM drives are known to have problems with the Highpoint Controller, its possible that they also have issues with the Promise. I assume that each drive is on a different channel on the Promise card. I have seen a post, but no first hand experience, that different cache chip types are used on the IBM drives. If you have a pair of drives with different cache chips then the RAID functions are slow.

 

[JaiKnight]

This is a software RAID array, although it does uses an Promise add-on card. The Promise card uses a software implementation though, it's not true hardware RAID. The drives are on their own IDE channels.

BearX00, from all that I've read it does take quite a bit, but I didn't expect it to take 100% all the time when writing to the drives, it's strange that it doesn't hit 100% when reading from them though...

DaddyG, I have two identical IBM 75GXP 30GB drives, that's interesting though, wouldn't the cache chips take more of the load off the writing though? I wouldn't think that it'd take so much out of the CPU.

Anymore possibilities? I can't break the array or everything go byebye Too much stuff installed already! That and I don't have a straight Ultra66 or Ultra100 card to use...

 

[JaiKnight]

Bump

 

[PCResources]

<< Well, his set up isn't software, he's using a hardware card >>



No, it's software, the only HW IDE RAID card out there is the Adaptec card...

It will still use more CPU power than a SCSI solution though as the IDE interface is CPU dependant in itself... And with more disks to be read and written at the same time, it only gets worse...

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Insane3D]

&quot;IBM drives are known to have problems with the Highpoint Controller&quot;

Hmmm..really? Could you point me to where that info is? I have had my 2 IBM 75GXP 30GB running in RAID 0 on my Abit KA7-100 for almost a year with no problems. I even installed Win2K directly onto the RAID drive. No problems at all.

 

[MasterMind]

<< Does anybody know if this is normal? Even duping a folder in the same drives takes longer than normal. >>



No. Something isn't right but I could only suggest to start from scratch and rebuild the array. Not something you can do without losing the data. The CPU usage should max ~15% during heavy disk access so something's up.

Just a thought, are both drive jumpers set to master?

 

[JaiKnight]

Mastermind, thanks for the info! I haven't checked the drives yet, they're still at default factory settings, so I'd assume they're in Master mode. I'll take a look the next chance I get. Do you know of any other possibilities that I could check in the mean time?

 

[MasterMind]

The reserve sector could be corrupted and if it is even rebuilding the array won't fix the problem. Here's the instructions for removing a bad reserve sector. I had to do it once after a few rebuilds with different stripe sizes. Don't forget to read the warning halfway down the page!