David.Plummer@f70.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Plummer) (03/18/91)
I aplogize for posting a message that doesn't flame another hardware platform in this group. Please bear with me while I ask an actual question. Maybe a Mac user wil answer me.... Anyway, on to the question. I'm using the ARP Copy command to back up and restore my hard drive to a spare hard drive, and in order to speed things up, I set the BUF parameter to 2000 (approx 1M). Now it seems to read/write a lot less, but I notice the screen blanker I'm using stops dead in between drive activity, as does the mouse pointer if you're using it. Does this version of copy (or all copy commands) have to do a forbid during the copy to validate the bitmap or something? Why would s standard DOS command shut down multitasking? By the way, does anyone else use FaccII for their hard drives? Any horror stories, or am I safe? - Dave (as above or plummerd@max.cc.uregina.ca) -- David Plummer - via FidoNet node 1:140/22 UUCP: ...!herald!weyr!70!David.Plummer Domain: David.Plummer@f70.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG Standard Disclaimers Apply...
ig29@terre (Robert Gagnon) (03/21/91)
In article <123.27E5AA36@weyr.FIDONET.ORG> David.Plummer@f70.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Plummer) writes: >Anyway, on to the question. I'm using the ARP Copy command to back up >and restore my hard drive to a spare hard drive, and in order to speed >things up, I set the BUF parameter to 2000 (approx 1M). Now it seems to >read/write a lot less, but I notice the screen blanker I'm using stops >dead in between drive activity, as does the mouse pointer if you're >using it. You probably have a non-DMA Hard Drive controller. It's the process that controls the interface that steals all CPU cycles to do its bit pushing. For example, my TrumpCard (regular) uses a priority 10 controlling process. Every other process freezes on the system when continuous R/W to the HD is performed. Yuk! Just like a Mac ;) Robert // \X/ Gagnon
David.Plummer@f70.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Plummer) (03/29/91)
RG> In article <123.27E5AA36@weyr.FIDONET.ORG>
RG> David.Plummer@f70.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Plummer) writes:
RG> >Anyway, on to the question. I'm using the ARP Copy command to back
RG> up
RG> >and restore my hard drive to a spare hard drive, and in order to
RG> speed
RG> >things up, I set the BUF parameter to 2000 (approx 1M). Now it
RG> seems to
RG> >read/write a lot less, but I notice the screen blanker I'm using
RG> stops
RG> >dead in between drive activity, as does the mouse pointer if you're
RG> >using it.
RG>
RG> You probably have a non-DMA Hard Drive controller. It's the process
RG> that
RG> controls the interface that steals all CPU cycles to do its bit
RG> pushing.
RG> For example, my TrumpCard (regular) uses a priority 10 controlling
RG> process.
RG> Every other process freezes on the system when continuous R/W to the
RG> HD
RG> is performed. Yuk! Just like a Mac ;)
RG>
You really have to hate the way quoting wraps text like that....
Actually, I have a A590 (2091) which is (better be!) a DMA controller.
You may be right to one extent though, since the IORequest Handler gets
a priority of 11. The scsi.device gets a priority of 12. But the input
device gets a priority of 20, so it still shouldn't lock the system up
for that second or two. I still don't know...
--
David Plummer - via FidoNet node 1:140/22
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