How to set custom, very large block size?
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 5:02 pm
I want to set a block size of 10MB. how would I do this? The max I see is 512KB.
I'm trying to solve a very specific problem by adding PrimoCache to the equation. I have an external USB dock with 18TB hard drive that contains lots of media files. Typical file is maybe 500mb. I can copy this file to internal disk in a few seconds, but if I play the file with VLC, then the hard drive will constantly seek as I watch the video even though the file is contiguous (not fragmented) on the drive.
So as I'm playing a 50 minute 500mb file, every 2-3 seconds, the drive will go "thud" as it seeks. There is nothing wrong with the drive. I think perhaps the dock is poorly designed not to cache large blocks from the drive but I'm not sure.
Anyway, with 512KB blocks, that means it will read a new block every 3 seconds, so with PrimoCache in place, I'm still getting a seek thud every 3 seconds. So instead, I want to cache big 10MB blocks. Then I will only get a seek noise once per minute.
Anyway, I didn't have to explain why I wanted such large blocks, but I assumed I'd just get pushback about inefficiency, etc. unless I explained. i don't care about efficiency, I just want to solve this one problem. Right now, with PrimoCache, I can solve the issue by running md5sum on the file before playing it, since that will force cache it in a few seconds, but I'd like things to work without having to do that annoying extra step.
I'm trying to solve a very specific problem by adding PrimoCache to the equation. I have an external USB dock with 18TB hard drive that contains lots of media files. Typical file is maybe 500mb. I can copy this file to internal disk in a few seconds, but if I play the file with VLC, then the hard drive will constantly seek as I watch the video even though the file is contiguous (not fragmented) on the drive.
So as I'm playing a 50 minute 500mb file, every 2-3 seconds, the drive will go "thud" as it seeks. There is nothing wrong with the drive. I think perhaps the dock is poorly designed not to cache large blocks from the drive but I'm not sure.
Anyway, with 512KB blocks, that means it will read a new block every 3 seconds, so with PrimoCache in place, I'm still getting a seek thud every 3 seconds. So instead, I want to cache big 10MB blocks. Then I will only get a seek noise once per minute.
Anyway, I didn't have to explain why I wanted such large blocks, but I assumed I'd just get pushback about inefficiency, etc. unless I explained. i don't care about efficiency, I just want to solve this one problem. Right now, with PrimoCache, I can solve the issue by running md5sum on the file before playing it, since that will force cache it in a few seconds, but I'd like things to work without having to do that annoying extra step.