>nice doesn't really do anything with respect to I/O. Yes I tried it and it never made a diff from one end of the spectrum to the other:) >The best way to control I/O in this manor is to physically >isolate it from the rest of the system(be it on a different >controller connected to different disks etc). Well, not always possible! I am going to try Peter's suggestion of ionice tonight. Thanks everyone! jlc