How to run FWB HDT Benchtest????

[pondosinatra]

I've installed FWB Tookit v3.0 but I can't figure out how to run the benchmark test.

How do I get to this?

I tried selecting the test option, but it tells me it can't because I booted from that drive. So I then boot off a CD and try again and it tells me I can't because the program is on that hard drive. And again, I'm not even sure I'm trying to run the right thing.

Help!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I was hoping to help out, I wanna learn the ins-n-outs of HDT ASAP, but I don't have v3.0.

It took me a few mnutes, but I found the full retail boxes (flattened in big Zip-Bags for labeling/storing) for versions 1.2.1 and 2.0, so I haven't got the manual to reference what you need.

But ask some specific questions and I'll try to look at what I've got to see if it helps. Just don't expect quick turnaround on info for a few days. xx(

 

[tt]

That plot looks familiar... I think I ran the program off another partition in the drive. You could also try to run it off a boot floppy or boot CD image.

 

[olePigeon]

I found it! It's bundled with FWB RAID Toolkit. It's not apart of the regular HDT set. PM coming your way for additional info.

 

[olePigeon]

Also, I think it unmounts the drive when it's testing it, so you can't be be booted (or run the software) from the drive you want to test. You'll have to create a boot disk with the tools installed on it (probably a Zip, Jaz, or some other SCSI drive as a floppy won't be nearly big enough.)

 

[pondosinatra]

Ok, thanks to olePigeon's help I was able to get this going.

And I didn't have to boot from another disc or anything which was awesome.

So I ran it on a 1st Gen Sandisk flash drive and hit a peak read of 701 and a peak write of 753Kb/s.

I'm going to run it next on a Ultra II Sandisk which says 15MB/s on it.

I have a 30MB/s card as well - unfortunately it's 4GB and any drive formatting utility only ever sees it as a 64MB partition. If anyone knows how to get around that I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

[olePigeon]

I'm gonna give it a go on my RAID IIci, see if there's any measurable speed difference. Heading to the recycler to grab some resistors, then I'm gonna give my Jackhammer card another go.

 

[pondosinatra]

So the results on the supposed fast flash card were actually slightly worse. But statistically the same.

The conclusion at least to me being that you're limited by the speed of the IIci's SCSI bus. It doesn't matter if you put faster cards in or not.

 

[tt]

What hardware/adapters are you using? The write speed you posted is decent for a CF card, but the read speed is slow. If you are using a CF card, the slower than expected speeds seem to be attributed to drivers you format the card with and the architecture of solid state CF drives since they lack a write cache and/or have controllers for wear leveling that slow down writes. There are a few threads about it here in the compact mac forum.

 

[pondosinatra]

I tested both a SanDisk (I'm guessing Gen 1, the Blue colored ones), and a Sandisk Ultra II 15MB/s card.

They were formatted using Anubis 3.x.

 

[olePigeon]

You could give it another try with FWB drivers.