Incredibly slow HDD

My hardware:
AMD Athlon X2 4800+ (2,5 GHz) + 2 GB DDR2 memory
MSI K9N V2 (nforce 520)
SAMSUNG HD250HJ (SATA, 250 GB)
I’m using OpenSUSE 11.2 with all the released updates are installed.
I’ve got an Windows Xp SP3 on the same hard drive and it’s works fine.
S.M.A.R.T. says the hdd is 100%.

A few days ago I realized that the boot time increased and the hard drive operations takes way too much time.
So currently the boot sequence takes 11-14 minutes.>:(

I’ve already tried to solve this problem but no effect:
1.) cleaned up the root directory to create more free space
2.) plugged the sata cable to another port
3.) changed from AHCI to IDE and reverse in BIOS settings
4.) added ahci, sata_nv into the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file and created a new initrd
5.) searched for problems in the syslog

Just to imagine how slow is currently the system/hdd:
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8697/wtfhdd.th.png](http://img638.imageshack.us/i/wtfhdd.png/)

When booting starts, press the <ESC> key to clear the bootsplash screen and look
to see what is displayed when the boot process hangs.

I just thought about downgrading the kernel, then realized that the “kernel-desktop” doesn’t got ahci kernel module (currently using this and in the syslog it also mentions it) while “*kernel-default/i]” got ahci module. So I give it a try to switch to default.

** lwfinger **
the boot sequence goes down with major problems and hangs/stops it just incredibly slow (takes more 10 minutes instead of less then 2 minutes)*

On 03/30/2011 06:36 PM, hl89x6 wrote:
>
> 5.) searched for problems in the syslog

which syslog? were there no warning or errors reported? no repeated
attempts to do something (the same line repeated maybe 10 times, or 100?)

you mentioned you “cleaned up” the root partition to make more
room…were you out of room? did you have a crash or failure to boot
or inability to log in preceding this sudden “Incredibly slow HDD”

please show us the terminal output from


df -h
sudo /sbin/fdisk -l
cat /proc/partitions
cat /etc/fstab
mount

copy/paste the output back to this thread using the instructions here:
http://goo.gl/i3wnr


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lwfinger
the boot sequence goes down with major problems and hangs/stops it just incredibly slow (takes more 10 minutes instead of less then 2 minutes)

sorry I meant without major problems
with “kernel-desktop” it says “ahci” module is missing, but I switched to “kernel-default” and now the message is gone since it’s exist in this kernel

On 2011-03-30 18:36, hl89x6 wrote:

> Just to imagine how slow is currently the system/hdd:
> ‘[image: http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8697/wtfhdd.th.png]’
> (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/wtfhdd.png/)

Can you repeat the test from a live cd? If the system is otherwise busy
writing or reading, that could be the explanation.

Otherwise, I would suspect disk errors. You mention SMART, did you run the
long test?


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

On 03/30/2011 03:08 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2011-03-30 18:36, hl89x6 wrote:
>
>> Just to imagine how slow is currently the system/hdd:
>> ‘[image: http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8697/wtfhdd.th.png]’
>> (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/wtfhdd.png/)
>
> Can you repeat the test from a live cd? If the system is otherwise busy
> writing or reading, that could be the explanation.
>
> Otherwise, I would suspect disk errors. You mention SMART, did you run the
> long test?

If you have a cable problem, you will get “disk” errors, but SMART will show no
HDD problems, but errors will be logged. This situation happens from time to
time on my laptop. I have to shut down, remove the trap door, and re-seat the
disk drive to refresh the contacts.

On 2011-03-30 22:55, Larry Finger wrote:
> On 03/30/2011 03:08 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> If you have a cable problem, you will get “disk” errors, but SMART will
> show no HDD problems, but errors will be logged. This situation happens
> from time to time on my laptop. I have to shut down, remove the trap door,
> and re-seat the disk drive to refresh the contacts.

True, smart test will find nothing in that case. It is best then to use the
manufacturer test disk. Seagate has a good one for download.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

Looks like the problem is fixed.
Switched to “kernel-default” from “kernel-desktop”, because default does have “ahci” kernel module while the other not. Then created a new initrd with ahci, libata etc. modules.
After this, forced to use the ahci module.

So currently I’ve got normal read/write speed, and even if I plug into an another sata port it’s works fine.

On 2011-03-31 22:36, hl89x6 wrote:
>
> Looks like the problem is fixed.
> Switched to “kernel-default” from “kernel-desktop”, because default
> does have “ahci” kernel module while the other not. Then created a new
> initrd with ahci, libata etc. modules.
> After this, forced to use the ahci module.
>
> So currently I’ve got normal read/write speed, and even if I plug into
> an another sata port it’s works fine.

I think you should report this in a Bugzilla.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)