Speed up access time of drives in RAID

[madmike0408]

Alright so I have two 6400AAKS drives in RAID 0 and my access time is about 17ms :( What can I do to speed that up some?

[jmdixon85]

Thats a high access time for that drive. Normal results are around 12-13ms. What did you use to meassure performance? HDTUNE is considered one of the best. Also, is it possible another program or process was accessing your disk during testing?

[madmike0408]

I used HD tune to do it, and I don't think anything was running in the background that could be using the drives.

[jmdixon85]

Well it sure is a slow access time for that drive. I now running raid can sometimes increase access times but not that much. I mean my two WD 250GB WD2500YS drives in RAID0 come in at 13.5ms in HDTUNE and your drives should be slightly faster. By the way their is no way to speed up access times other than buying hard disks with a faster spindle speed or a denser platter.

[pharoer]

By the way their is no way to speed up access times other than buying hard disks with a faster spindle speed or a denser platter.

There are several more:
The biggest way to decrease access time is smaller physical platters (ie 2.5" platters in raptors). Or by shortstroking harddrives.

Platter speed and density are negligible in comparison.

[jmdixon85]

There are several more:
The biggest way to decrease access time is smaller physical platters (ie 2.5" platters in raptors). Or by shortstroking harddrives.

Platter speed and density are negligible in comparison.

Yes very true, I'm on a nForce board so havn't had the joy of using shortstroking. i havn't had a reason to upgrade my mobo but maybe that is one. I can see the benefit of spreading my c: drive accross 4 drives @ maybe a 100GB on each drive. :D Just not sure what I would do with the empty space :shrug:

[pharoer]

Erm, shortstroking is not hardware dependent. You just get a big disk which you only use the highest density part of it by making a relatively small partition at the beginning of the drive. The point is to NOT use the rest of the space or there is no shortstroking anymore.

[jmdixon85]

Really? I thought only the Intel RAID could do this. So any advise on how I would do this on my nForce board with 2X250GB WD in RAID 0?

[zbo]

Yes you'd just raid your 250 to make a 500 gb raid, and then partion and only use the first 50gb of each disk. Giving you 100 gb to play with. You can't use the other 400gb, but that's the price you pay for speed I guess. I'm using 100gb of my 640 blacks and it's very nice. :)

[jmdixon85]

Dam'n. I've been building PC's and overclocking for years and I thought you needed The Intel RAID controller to do it! How stupid do I feel.:rolleyes:
Ok, so would re-partitioning my C: drive to just 200GB or maybe 250GB (Using paragon partition manger) would that be shortstroking?

[jason4207]

Yep. It's best to run a HDtach or similar and watch where the speed starts to drop off. Then slice it right around there.

As far as the OP's problem I believe madman007 found a solution.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=565932

[jmdixon85]

Ok, I will give it a try. I didn't think it would make much difference. I mean my drive is regulary defragged so shouldn't all my files be at the start of the disk's anyway and not spread all over the partition? If that is the case how would shortstroking help?

[tuskenraider]

Ok, I will give it a try. I didn't think it would make much difference. I mean my drive is regulary defragged so shouldn't all my files be at the start of the disk's anyway and not spread all over the partition? If that is the case how would shortstroking help?I'd worry about getting your access times fixed first. Beyond mining the above posted thread for a solution, getting Hitachi's FTool (http://www.freewarefree.net/utility/750/ibm-hitachi-feature-tool-209/)to make sure Acoustic Management is disabled would be a good idea, if that isn't proposed in the above link. Short-stroking will help, but whether you'll really notice it will "just depend".

[jmdixon85]

I'd worry about getting your access times fixed first. Beyond mining the above posted thread for a solution, getting Hitachi's FTool (http://www.freewarefree.net/utility/750/ibm-hitachi-feature-tool-209/)to make sure Acoustic Management is disabled would be a good idea, if that isn't proposed in the above link. Short-stroking will help, but whether you'll really notice it will "just depend".

Are you getting me mixed up with the OP? lol

I'm not the one with the 17ms access time.

[tuskenraider]

Are you getting me mixed up with the OP? lol

I'm not the one with the 17ms access time.Ooops, yep. :o

[moonshake]

I mean my drive is regulary defragged so shouldn't all my files be at the start of the disk's anyway and not spread all over the partition? If that is the case how would shortstroking help?

Check this out
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=612792

Nice avatar, by the way

[hitokiri_808]

The madman007 thread linked above should fix it.

There was another recent thread about fixing the AAM. Pertains to the same problem, but has a few other options.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=613670