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Former Member
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CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Was playing last night with Storage Device Manager in Linux [discussed in this article]. Had it for longer but upon revisiting noticed that there are options to NOT update the access date/time stamp of files AND directories and was reminded of long ago days when doing the very thing in Windows. Given that CEP2 uses 6600+ files, it might be something to consider.

Will dig it out soon in my Windows 7 installs where the BOINC Data dir is in it's own drive [and partition]. Who knows will it add that other 0.1% in performance for this science. One thing on the quick, discovered that W7 was set to index the files for the BOINC data_dir drive... not any longer. :D

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[Sep 11, 2011 4:15:47 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

The Windows XP/Vista/W7 way to stop the time stamp updating on access/read only are described in the below 2 articles:

http://mikebeach.org/2011/04/speed-up-windows...e-last-access-time-stamp/

http://tweaks.com/windows/37043/increase-xp-ntfs-performance/

On Linux this may impact programs like Zeitgeist that keeps track of file accesses, but at partition level, as is possible on Linux, it does not bother anyhow.

Use with care!

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edit: added second article
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 11, 2011 4:55:52 PM]
[Sep 11, 2011 4:54:51 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Thanks for investigating this, SekeRob. We'll keep our eyes open on this.
[Sep 12, 2011 2:45:08 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
yoro42
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Has anyone tried this? After getting disastrous results with ramdisk I want to read some success stories before I entertain implementing this idea.
Thanks for your efforts.
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[Sep 19, 2011 6:54:18 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
mfbabb2
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Has anyone tried this? After getting disastrous results with ramdisk I want to read some success stories before I entertain implementing this idea.
Thanks for your efforts.

If you lose power ALL of your work goes with it (including checkpoints).
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Murphy

[Sep 20, 2011 12:03:30 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Has anyone tried this? After getting disastrous results with ramdisk I want to read some success stories before I entertain implementing this idea.
Thanks for your efforts.

If you lose power ALL of your work goes with it (including checkpoints).

Opinion or observed fact with this setting? So far my knowledge goes, BOINC keeps result progress logs of it's own, which are the basis of task resume. Of course BOINC is not infallible, so having a power out can always be at the wrong moment in time. Of course if in a frequent power out environment, then the loss from that will far outstrip any little tweak applied to gain that 0.1% i.e. not for you. Those on UPS (all my devices are on cheapos with xxxxx Joules thunderblitz protection [fulmine], which also permits to pull the laptop battery from constant load and heat [which is 3x more expensive at that]. The UPS sends signal when charge goes low and then puts the device in hibernation. Not even a second loss on power up.

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sk..
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by skgiven at Sep 20, 2011 1:32:26 PM]
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

Don't know why another thread is taken off the topic [the power comment probably the signal], but was talking of A specific setting [all others extensively discussed in other CEP2 threads and general support], someone asking about the specific experience.

So please, on this topic of timestamp updating of directory and file access.

Thanks.

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[Sep 20, 2011 1:25:50 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

I implemented the suggestions on a couple of Windows boxes, but frankly it was more in the vein of "Hey, this sounds logical..." than with the thought that I would immediately see measurable performance improvements. I don't see how you could document the improvement with any accuracy unless you ran the same task with the timestamping on and then with it off. Or in the case of multicore/hyperthreading processors, with an identical set of tasks. None of which is feasible.

Throw in the disk I/O and processor usage of the other software I have running (Windows Update, antivirus, Secunia to maintain updates on everything, etc.) obfuscating the big picture, and I truly don't see how I, at least, could verify what is likely to be a minuscule increase "per job" in performance. But like I said, it makes sense; each I/O involving mechanical movement saved multiplied by the number of disk accesses that CEP2 makes is likely to yield an improvement "over the long term". Needless to say, any disk I/O avoided is also likely to extend the lives of hard drives.

(O.T., but excluding the BOINC processes and data directory from their antivirus' monitoring is also a good thing.)
[Sep 21, 2011 2:32:25 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: CEP2: Something which may or may not help disk access speed

The OT is frequently, if not numerously times brought up [in the Start Here FAQs somewhere]. No, would not know how to measure, but if it does the 0.x%, then it's still that amount. At any rate, did my Windows 7 box and no hassle to date. Similar, the Linux partition was set to not do the [read] timestamp updating. The change timestamps are still properly written and so far after a half dozen reboots nothing bad happening.

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[Sep 21, 2011 3:33:15 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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