I had a Seagate ST36531A (about 6.5GB). It seemed that the transfer rate
depended on
the geometry translation that was set in the BIOS. When it was set to
ECHS/Large (840/240/63) I got 4-5 M/sec out of it. When it was set to
LBA (790/255/63), I'd get < 1M/sec. It seems that some drives have speed
problems if
the geometry they're accessed with doesn't map naturally to the drive's
'native'
geometry.
On the other hand, I've just looked at your hdparm output, and your
friend's drive is too small for this to be relevant (you'll find that
ECHS and LBA translations are the same), but maybe the above will
inspire someone else to the solution.
Robert Cardell
<rbt@mtlb.co.uk>
P.S. What make is this drive anyway? It may turn out to be one to avoid.
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