Arch Linux

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

Good to read this... my next harddisk won't be a WD.

Last edited by rwd (2010-02-06 12:05:46)

brianhanna

Member

Registered: 2009-10-30

Posts: 157

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

I know it looks like you've found the cause of the problem but it may still be worth checking for rootkits on your machine.  If your system's been rooted, someone can run things on it and keep them from showing up under top/htop.

Aidenn

Member

Registered: 2006-03-20

Posts: 57

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

Good to read this... my next harddisk won't be a WD.

actually, it seems to be limited to Greens only in a few select cases. they're the slowest modern WD drives and use a lot of idle techniques for power conservation, which seem to be causing problems with linux. although I have a friend, who uses a Green with Arch and it works fine. they should be mainly used for storage though.

I'm using a WD Blue as my main OS disk (Blue is the middle consumer ground, Black is for performance geeks) and it's simply fantastic. it performs extremely well with no problems whatsoever, also seek times and read/write speeds are great for its price.

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

Good to read this... my next harddisk won't be a WD.

actually, it seems to be limited to Greens only in a few select cases. they're the slowest modern WD drives and use a lot of idle techniques for power conservation, which seem to be causing problems with linux. although I have a friend, who uses a Green with Arch and it works fine. they should be mainly used for storage though.

I'm using a WD Blue as my main OS disk (Blue is the middle consumer ground, Black is for performance geeks) and it's simply fantastic. it performs extremely well with no problems whatsoever, also seek times and read/write speeds are great for its price.

My worry is not just performance, but that you apparently need a dos-only tool to adjust the settings.

Aidenn

Member

Registered: 2006-03-20

Posts: 57

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

My worry is not just performance, but that you apparently need a dos-only tool to adjust the settings.

do you know any HD manufacturer providing tools to tweak their product's advanced features that is not Win/DOS based? actually, I haven't even seen that, all manufacturers provide diagnostic tools, but no tweakers. WD is a first for me. ;)

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

My worry is not just performance, but that you apparently need a dos-only tool to adjust the settings.

do you know any HD manufacturer providing tools to tweak their product's advanced features that is not Win/DOS based? actually, I haven't even seen that, all manufacturers provide diagnostic tools, but no tweakers. WD is a first for me.

So far I could disable power-saving features of my Samsung and Fujitsu drives using hdparm and smartctl just fine.

Aidenn

Member

Registered: 2006-03-20

Posts: 57

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

So far I could disable power-saving features of my Samsung and Fujitsu drives using hdparm and smartctl just fine.

disabling power saving features and changing their internal workings are two different things. :)

mugg

Member

Registered: 2010-02-04

Posts: 4

Re: CPU is used heavily, but htop/top don't show any process using it.

I also had performance problem while using a WD green series drive, i solved those by aligning it to 4K sectors, the newer green series drives switched to 4k and sectors and when not aligned will perform badly, i've read writes can be up to 230% slower.
This only goes for the models which end with EARS though, the previous model EADS still uses the regular sector size.

Here is some more information and a fix, if this is your problem ofc but if you use one of these drives you should do this; http://www.osnews.com/story/22872/Linux … ard_Drives

Good luck