Very slow writing to SATA disk

[Mikhail Teterin]

> If this drive doesn't support tagged-queueing, is the write cache
> disabled?  I get that sort of performance from a (PATA) disk with
> the cache disabled (hw.ata.wc="0" in loader.conf)

No, just checked -- the hw.ata.wc is set to 1. Is there anything else to look 
at?

> >According to smartctl, the drive runs at 56C during the copying. Its
> >idle temperature seems to be 54C.

> I'd double-check that (eg with a finger).  If the drive really is
> running at 56°C, it won't last very long.

It sure feels hot to the touch, but nothing is burning, of course (freshly 
poured tee is near 100C and never ignites the paper cup).

Do you think, the high temperature explains the poor write performance? The 
drive still reads at tens of Mb per second... According to

http://www.spacecentersystems.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/293088

this model's 'Ambient Temperature' spec is 5 to 55C...

I'd like to be able to turn the drive off between backups, but 
sysutils/ataidle is broken on 6.0 (Soren?).

Thanks!

	-mi