>Try the data=writeback option which emulates the way XFS handles log >operations. With UPS and/or battery backed caching controller the risk >should be minimum. > >That will help, but ext3 is not good at handling large files at all, >so if you can switch to XFS that will make a bigger improvement. Make >sure XFS journal is set to max size and noatime and nodiratime are set >to make regular/small file operations perform decently. I just walked in that room and noticed some issues with that server so I may be rebuilding to new hardware! I will explore xfs on the rebuild. Thanks everyone! jlc