At Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:30:43 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I have a 3G AM2 quad core CPU... x86_64 centos 5.3 > > > 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. > > Thanks for any suggestions. Define 'backing up to my external USB drive': Are you: 1) Using dump, tar, cpio, or cp? 2) Are you compressing the backup? With gzip or bzip? 3) Are you using zip? If you are using bzip, bzip is a cpu hog. How much memory do you have? What kind of disks do you have? IDE? SATA? If SATA, is the controller in AHCI mode or IDE mode? > > Jerry > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/