meulenbr@cstw01.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (06/30/89)
Hi! Yesterday I noticed something peculiar with respect to the quickindex program (that is qindex15.prg). I wanted to compare my new hard disk with the floppy drive, by means of testing the DMA transfer rate using qindex15. The results were amazing: partition C does about 8300 % partition D and E do about 5600 % The drive in question was just formatted. Why is there a difference for the various partitions? Is this due to the algorithm? the disk? the way partitions are placed on the disk with respect to cylinders etc? (Side question: will a partition always contain only complete tracks? or even complete cylinders??) I'm totally puzzled with this. Of course 5600 % is ok, but 8300 % is definitely more likable. regards, Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcvax!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)
ignac@electro.UUCP (Ignac Kolenko) (07/04/89)
In article <541@prles2.UUCP> meulenbr@cstw01.prl.philips.nl () writes: >Yesterday I noticed something peculiar with respect to the quickindex >program (that is qindex15.prg). > >I wanted to compare my new hard disk with the floppy drive, by >means of testing the DMA transfer rate using qindex15. > >The results were amazing: >partition C does about 8300 % >partition D and E do about 5600 % > >The drive in question was just formatted. Frans, all that quick index does when benchmarking the DMA transfer rate is tell XBIOS to read in the first 64K (128 sectors) of the disk in question, including the hard drive partitions. other people , including ourselves, have noticed the kind of results that you have seen. this is probably due to the hard drive driver making accesses to the boot sector to find out information about the partition you wish to access. all partition information is stored in the first sector, which is right before the partition for drive C begins. this is why drive C gives a higher result, since the head does not have to seek as far to access drive C as for other partitions which are further away from sector 0 of the hard disk. you can visually see this happening by watching your hard drive light when on different partitions, and also to the sounds the drive makes when accessing different partitions. some partitions thrash around more than other. hope this helps! (and it would be nice if all partitions give 8300%!!!!) oh, btw, what kind if drive are you using. our SH204 drives only give 3000% at best!!! -- Ignac A. Kolenko (The Ig) watmath!watcgl!electro!ignac "Catholic or Protestant, you got no choice. I tried to scream, but I lost my voice!" from 'Irish Eyes Don't Smile Tonight' by SUBURBAN DISTORTION