Mailing List Archive

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 10:42:04 -0400, daniel wrote:

> so i finally got a new shiny dual-layer dvdrw drive that burns discs
> superfast and all that. i even tested it out, burning a bunch of
> anime episodes (~4gb) to disc. total time to make the layout:
> ~20seconds. total burning time ~10min.
>
> so then i tried to burn a backup of my email (~3gb). the time to just
> put the files into the layout (ie. drag them from the filesystem onto
> k3b before burning) was about 1HOUR!

How many separate files make up that 3GB of mail? How many files of
anime did you burn? The time is probably down to building the file
system, a couple of dozen files compared with probably tens of
thousands.


--
Neil Bothwick

I married your mother because I wanted children.
Imagine my disappointment when you came along.

On September 30, 2004 10:58 am, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 10:42:04 -0400, daniel wrote:
> > so i finally got a new shiny dual-layer dvdrw drive that burns discs
> > superfast and all that. i even tested it out, burning a bunch of
> > anime episodes (~4gb) to disc. total time to make the layout:
> > ~20seconds. total burning time ~10min.
> >
> > so then i tried to burn a backup of my email (~3gb). the time to just
> > put the files into the layout (ie. drag them from the filesystem onto
> > k3b before burning) was about 1HOUR!
>
> How many separate files make up that 3GB of mail? How many files of
> anime did you burn? The time is probably down to building the file
> system, a couple of dozen files compared with probably tens of
> thousands.

you're quite right. there's likely a couple thousand files making up that
Mail directory. but why does it take so long? i can't have my computer
unusable for an hour while i'm preparing to burn something. this has gotta
be a bug.... right?

--
thanks be to god that gave me stubborness when i know i am right.
- john adams

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On Thu, 2004-09-30 at 10:42 -0400, daniel wrote:
> so i finally got a new shiny dual-layer dvdrw drive that burns discs superfast
> and all that. i even tested it out, burning a bunch of anime episodes (~4gb)
> to disc. total time to make the layout: ~20seconds. total burning time
> ~10min.
>
> so then i tried to burn a backup of my email (~3gb). the time to just put the
> files into the layout (ie. drag them from the filesystem onto k3b before
> burning) was about 1HOUR! am i doing something wrong? i've heard that this
> doesn't happen in windows. is this a k3b thing? or a linux thing? can i fix
> it?
>
> i'm using an athlon 800 w/ 512mb ram and a gig of swap. kde 3.3.0, gcc3.4.x.

I saw a similar issue, though with a standard DVD writer (the drive
really doesn't matter here), and was also using k3b.

Now in my case, I can't even use K3B to write to dvd. But it can write
cd's with it, go figure. I use K3B to create an ISO then write that with
growisofs.

I had an archive of several hundred files adding up to about 8GB. So I
made one DVD iso then another. It took quite a while to make those, and
the reason is not only the ammount of data but the number of files. It's
similar when you simply copy that many files somewhere else: The number
of files has a huge effect on how long it takes. It probably took me 20
minutes to make it all, which was quite a while for a dual athlon XP
1800+ with raid1. I was still able to use my system though.


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daniel wrote:
> On September 30, 2004 10:58 am, Neil Bothwick wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 10:42:04 -0400, daniel wrote:
>>
>>>so i finally got a new shiny dual-layer dvdrw drive that burns discs
>>>superfast and all that. i even tested it out, burning a bunch of
>>>anime episodes (~4gb) to disc. total time to make the layout:
>>>~20seconds. total burning time ~10min.
>>>
>>>so then i tried to burn a backup of my email (~3gb). the time to just
>>>put the files into the layout (ie. drag them from the filesystem onto
>>>k3b before burning) was about 1HOUR!
>>
>>How many separate files make up that 3GB of mail? How many files of
>>anime did you burn? The time is probably down to building the file
>>system, a couple of dozen files compared with probably tens of
>>thousands.
>
>
> you're quite right. there's likely a couple thousand files making up that
> Mail directory. but why does it take so long? i can't have my computer
> unusable for an hour while i'm preparing to burn something. this has gotta
> be a bug.... right?
>

Not necessarily-- is a mail program accessing the mail files while
you're trying to copy them to the DVD layout?

Holly


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On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:28:01 -0400, daniel wrote:

> > How many separate files make up that 3GB of mail? How many files of
> > anime did you burn? The time is probably down to building the file
> > system, a couple of dozen files compared with probably tens of
> > thousands.
>
> you're quite right. there's likely a couple thousand files making up
> that Mail directory.

Only a couple of thousand? That makes the average mail size 1.5GB.

> but why does it take so long? i can't have my computer
> unusable for an hour while i'm preparing to burn something. this has
> gotta be a bug.... right?

How many files do you have in your mail directory?

find ~/Mail -type f | wc -l

will tell you. I think this is the main cause of the problem. Does it
take as long if you use mkisofs directly?

mkisofs -Rq -o test.iso ~/Mail

If it does, it's likely that reading and writing the filesystems is the
bottleneck. If it's quicker, maybe it's a K3b bug.


--
Neil Bothwick

You couldn't get a job as a firing squad target.

On September 30, 2004 11:41 am, Holly Bostick wrote:
> > you're quite right. there's likely a couple thousand files making up
> > that Mail directory. but why does it take so long? i can't have my
> > computer unusable for an hour while i'm preparing to burn something.
> > this has gotta be a bug.... right?
>
> Not necessarily-- is a mail program accessing the mail files while
> you're trying to copy them to the DVD layout?

nope. and this was the case with other large numbers of files. about 20 to
30min for 1gb of text files and old word documents.

--
Jayne: Saint Jayne - Its got a ring to it!
Book: I'm just tryin to remember how many miracles you,ve performed.
Jayne: I once hit a guy in the neck from 500 yards with a bent scope, dont
that count upstairs?
Book: Oh i'm sure it'll be taken into consideration.
- Jayne and Book, Firefly, "Objects in Space"

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On September 30, 2004 11:53 am, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:28:01 -0400, daniel wrote:
> > > How many separate files make up that 3GB of mail? How many files of
> > > anime did you burn? The time is probably down to building the file
> > > system, a couple of dozen files compared with probably tens of
> > > thousands.
> >
> > you're quite right. there's likely a couple thousand files making up
> > that Mail directory.
>
> Only a couple of thousand? That makes the average mail size 1.5GB.
> > but why does it take so long? i can't have my computer
> > unusable for an hour while i'm preparing to burn something. this has
> > gotta be a bug.... right?
>
> How many files do you have in your mail directory?
>
> find ~/Mail -type f | wc -l

oops. there's a little over 300,000 files there ;-)

> will tell you. I think this is the main cause of the problem. Does it
> take as long if you use mkisofs directly?
>
> mkisofs -Rq -o test.iso ~/Mail

i never tried this, (though i will next time) i just ended up running k3b for
the whole day, while it maxed out my cpu and setup the burn. it burned
alright, but it did take the whole day...

> If it does, it's likely that reading and writing the filesystems is the
> bottleneck. If it's quicker, maybe it's a K3b bug.

when i do another mail backup, i'll try the above method, and if it turns out
to be faster, i'll report my findings. thanks to all that commented.

--
Simon: This may come as a surprise, but I'm not very good at talking to girls.
Zo: Why, is there someone you are good at talking to?
- Simon and Zo, Firefly, "The Message"

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