Tips
Speeding up your hard drive (#1)
Get faster file transfer by using 32-bit transfers on your hard drive
Just add the line:
hdparm -c3 /dev/hdX
to a bootup script.
If you use SuSE or other distros based on SYS V,
/sbin/init.d/boot.local
should work for you.
This enables 32-bit transfer...