[CentOS] slugishness

[John Doe]

From: Jerry Geis <geisj at pagestation.com>
> When I am doing backing up to my external USB drive
> my system becomes sluggish. Clicking on a thunderbird compose
> takes some time to pop up the window. Typeing doesnt keep up etc...
> Is there something I can change so this backup doesnt slow my system
> down so much? I dont see HOW it can be taking so much CPU.
> top at times shows 0 idle or 11% idle from a USB backup.

Reminds me of old CDROMs that would use an insane amount of CPU.
Like the cheap RAID drivers that have a lot of the logic in the driver.
Same for cheap winprinters.
etc...

JD