Hi All;
I'm about to come to the conclusion that my Quantum Prodrive 105 (LP105A)
is a piece of crap. My tendency to jump in this direction is supported by
a visit to the Quantum website, which is DEFINITELY crap - they use 100%
javascript. It's so bad it crashes Netscape. :((
In my failed search for info on this series of drives, I came across
adjectives like "extraordinary" and phrases like "based on the Prodrive
series", but was unable to get anything that I didn't already have. It
would be nice to know if there is a secret software switch to turn on
the "extraordinary" feature, because it seems as ordinary as a lump of
coal to me. If anyone knows different, please inform me.;-)
I have info obtained by interrogating the drive according to the ATA
specification. Heads, sectors, cylinders, transfer rate and modes, and
buffer size and type. It runs like the buffer is turned off. <G>
On another front, I have one more piece of interesting and valuable
information regarding NCACHE and Arachne, with a semi-decent WD Caviar
drive. Interrogation as above informs me that this drive uses/is capable
of 8k block transfers. Norton REALLY wants me to set the cache for 8k
blocks. Speedchk gives me a time of 25,26 Sec with 8k blocks.
Here is the interesting part:
I have about 400 pieces of mail in my Arachne Inbox. The first load
of the Inbox takes 11 Sec on this P90 with the minimum 8k readahead.
All subsequent reloads ALSO take 11 Sec when the Ncache block size
is set the way Norton wants it at 8k. The 8k blocks seems way too
big for Arachne size files, so I turned the block size down as far
as it would go for this size cache - that's a block size of 1024 for
a 1320kb cache.
Now Speedchk gives me a time of 24,25 Sec. I know, you don't care what
speedchk says. <G>
Ok, ARACHNE says: Load Inbox 11 Sec. RELOAD Inbox 6 sec ! Every time !
Bernie ? Here is the lookahead stuff. I leave the block size at 1k and
set the lookahead to MAXIMUM (62k).
Speedchk says: 26,27 Sec. Arachne load Inbox 13 Sec. RELOAD INBOX 12 Sec.
We are allowed to set the lookahead to zero, so I did.
Speedchk says 24,24. Arachne loads inbox in 10 Sec. Reloads in 6 Sec.<g>
More later when I learn where to squirt the WD40 into the Quantum.<G>
- Clarence Verge
- Still using Arachne V1.62 ....
