hdparm

http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=hdparm&searchon=names&subword=1&case=insensitive&version=all&release=all You want DMA and 32bit on to get reasonable performance.

hendry@scrooge-15:~$ sudo hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

multcount = 0 (off) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) unmaskirq = 1 (on) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) geometry = 65535/16/63, sectors = 117210240, start = 0 Debian SID has a configuration option:

/etc/hdparm.conf

/dev/hda {
     dma = on
     interrupt_unmask = on
     io32_support = 1

}

/dev/hdc {
     dma = on
     interrupt_unmask = on
     io32_support = 1

}