How to diagnose the difference in OS performance between installation media?












1















I have two different USB sticks, a 128 GB Samsung and a 64 GB SanDisk. I used Gnome Disks to benchmark both of them and the Samsung one was supposedly better, it had faster read and write speed but it seems the SanDisk one had faster access time, although not by much. So I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on the Samsung drive using the default Ubuntu installer. The drive was formatted in MBR mode, so Ubuntu installed GRUB in legacy mode. I had no swap partition nor a swapfile.



Well, I used for some weeks that USB to boot Ubuntu on my lap top, and I noticed some performance issues. Sometimes the system would hang for a few seconds while loading or closing a program or simply when I opened a mail in thunderbird. I know that performance is not as good as if I installed it directly on the Hard Disk but I've used Arch Linux from a different USB stick before and the performance wasn't that bad.



So just to see what would happen I formatted the SanDisk drive in GPT format with an EFI partition, copied all the files from the Samsung drive to the SanDisk one (using this Arch Wiki article as a guide, it preserves all permissions, etc) and installed GRUB in EFI mode. Technically I have the same Ubuntu installation, just on a different drive and bootloading in GRUB EFI mode instead of GRUB legacy MBR mode. But after using it for a while the performance is way better, so far it has not hanged in any way.



How I can diagnose the cause of the difference in performance? Does booting in EFI mode helps performance? Is the Samsung drive defective? Is something else?









share







New contributor




Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

























    1















    I have two different USB sticks, a 128 GB Samsung and a 64 GB SanDisk. I used Gnome Disks to benchmark both of them and the Samsung one was supposedly better, it had faster read and write speed but it seems the SanDisk one had faster access time, although not by much. So I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on the Samsung drive using the default Ubuntu installer. The drive was formatted in MBR mode, so Ubuntu installed GRUB in legacy mode. I had no swap partition nor a swapfile.



    Well, I used for some weeks that USB to boot Ubuntu on my lap top, and I noticed some performance issues. Sometimes the system would hang for a few seconds while loading or closing a program or simply when I opened a mail in thunderbird. I know that performance is not as good as if I installed it directly on the Hard Disk but I've used Arch Linux from a different USB stick before and the performance wasn't that bad.



    So just to see what would happen I formatted the SanDisk drive in GPT format with an EFI partition, copied all the files from the Samsung drive to the SanDisk one (using this Arch Wiki article as a guide, it preserves all permissions, etc) and installed GRUB in EFI mode. Technically I have the same Ubuntu installation, just on a different drive and bootloading in GRUB EFI mode instead of GRUB legacy MBR mode. But after using it for a while the performance is way better, so far it has not hanged in any way.



    How I can diagnose the cause of the difference in performance? Does booting in EFI mode helps performance? Is the Samsung drive defective? Is something else?









    share







    New contributor




    Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.























      1












      1








      1








      I have two different USB sticks, a 128 GB Samsung and a 64 GB SanDisk. I used Gnome Disks to benchmark both of them and the Samsung one was supposedly better, it had faster read and write speed but it seems the SanDisk one had faster access time, although not by much. So I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on the Samsung drive using the default Ubuntu installer. The drive was formatted in MBR mode, so Ubuntu installed GRUB in legacy mode. I had no swap partition nor a swapfile.



      Well, I used for some weeks that USB to boot Ubuntu on my lap top, and I noticed some performance issues. Sometimes the system would hang for a few seconds while loading or closing a program or simply when I opened a mail in thunderbird. I know that performance is not as good as if I installed it directly on the Hard Disk but I've used Arch Linux from a different USB stick before and the performance wasn't that bad.



      So just to see what would happen I formatted the SanDisk drive in GPT format with an EFI partition, copied all the files from the Samsung drive to the SanDisk one (using this Arch Wiki article as a guide, it preserves all permissions, etc) and installed GRUB in EFI mode. Technically I have the same Ubuntu installation, just on a different drive and bootloading in GRUB EFI mode instead of GRUB legacy MBR mode. But after using it for a while the performance is way better, so far it has not hanged in any way.



      How I can diagnose the cause of the difference in performance? Does booting in EFI mode helps performance? Is the Samsung drive defective? Is something else?









      share







      New contributor




      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.












      I have two different USB sticks, a 128 GB Samsung and a 64 GB SanDisk. I used Gnome Disks to benchmark both of them and the Samsung one was supposedly better, it had faster read and write speed but it seems the SanDisk one had faster access time, although not by much. So I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on the Samsung drive using the default Ubuntu installer. The drive was formatted in MBR mode, so Ubuntu installed GRUB in legacy mode. I had no swap partition nor a swapfile.



      Well, I used for some weeks that USB to boot Ubuntu on my lap top, and I noticed some performance issues. Sometimes the system would hang for a few seconds while loading or closing a program or simply when I opened a mail in thunderbird. I know that performance is not as good as if I installed it directly on the Hard Disk but I've used Arch Linux from a different USB stick before and the performance wasn't that bad.



      So just to see what would happen I formatted the SanDisk drive in GPT format with an EFI partition, copied all the files from the Samsung drive to the SanDisk one (using this Arch Wiki article as a guide, it preserves all permissions, etc) and installed GRUB in EFI mode. Technically I have the same Ubuntu installation, just on a different drive and bootloading in GRUB EFI mode instead of GRUB legacy MBR mode. But after using it for a while the performance is way better, so far it has not hanged in any way.



      How I can diagnose the cause of the difference in performance? Does booting in EFI mode helps performance? Is the Samsung drive defective? Is something else?







      usb grub performance gpt mbr





      share







      New contributor




      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.










      share







      New contributor




      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.








      share



      share






      New contributor




      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      asked 3 mins ago









      Serge2702Serge2702

      61




      61




      New contributor




      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.





      New contributor





      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






      Serge2702 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






















          0






          active

          oldest

          votes











          Your Answer








          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "106"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });






          Serge2702 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f500318%2fhow-to-diagnose-the-difference-in-os-performance-between-installation-media%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          0






          active

          oldest

          votes








          0






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes








          Serge2702 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          Serge2702 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













          Serge2702 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












          Serge2702 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















          Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f500318%2fhow-to-diagnose-the-difference-in-os-performance-between-installation-media%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          CARDNET

          Boot-repair Failure: Unable to locate package grub-common:i386

          濃尾地震