July 24, 201114 yr Hi I bought a new server "HP ProLiant MicroServer N36L" and installed 3 x 2TB Samsung HD's Formatting is taking forever, is that normal? (only started about 2 hours ago) See screenshot.
July 24, 201114 yr DId you check the "I'm sure I want to do this" under the Format button and click "Format"? I know this sounds like it might be a stupid question but your screenshot looks like you might not have done that.
July 24, 201114 yr Yep, the screenshot shows it's just calculating parity. The displayed "Estimated speed" of 10,626KB/sec isn't good. If you've been clicking refresh repeatedly it'll read low, otherwise that is very slow. I've read that system's SATA ports are bridged through PATA which could explain it.
July 24, 201114 yr Author I've just woke up... Now it is 12.6%, wow thats very slow.. thats normal? mikechy: I have cancel the format last night and checked "I'm sure I want to do this". See screenshot for current progress: Is Estimated speed normal? how can i increase it
July 24, 201114 yr Formatting at the same time means the disks have to multi-task, flopping their heads around between the two jobs which slows both. (mild thrashing) Notice how estimated speed has dropped about 1MB/s. I would have let the parity operation complete first. Again, those SATA ports your disks are connected to are going through old PATA channels on the board. That severely limits the performance of the system. Parity checks are the single most intense operation you'll ever do on unRAID so no surprise it's painfully slow. The system might work okay once finished but the hardware design means it'll never be fast.
July 24, 201114 yr Author Formatting at the same time means the disks have to multi-task, flopping their heads around between the two jobs which slows both. (mild thrashing) Notice how estimated speed has dropped about 1MB/s. I would have let the parity operation complete first. Again, those SATA ports your disks are connected to are going through old PATA channels on the board. That severely limits the performance of the system. Parity checks are the single most intense operation you'll ever do on unRAID so no surprise it's painfully slow. The system might work okay once finished but the hardware design means it'll never be fast. Thanks for info! Do you think I should restart the computer and let the parity operation complete first? or has it formatting already completed and its doing Parity checks now...?
July 24, 201114 yr Author I think I fixed the problem. I have to enable Write Cache under IDE settings in the Advanced tab of the BIOS. Now I am getting the Estimated speed of 53,410+ KB/sec Reference: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=8349.msg105559;topicseen#msg105559
July 24, 201114 yr You should not be using IDE Mode so if there's a setting in bios to switch over to AHCI mode, try that for a possible speed boost.
July 24, 201114 yr Author You should not be using IDE Mode so if there's a setting in bios to switch over to AHCI mode, try that for a possible speed boost. It is AHCI mode - in the bios you will have to go to IDE setting/menu
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