Srdjan Todorovic todorovic.s@googlemail.com asked:

Any ideas why I get large average loads (8.82, 4.20, 1.80) when running dd that copies 2GB of data to a compact disk flash card using a USB disk reader in Fiesty (or whatever it is called)?

I think compact flash is pretty slow, so you probably have lots of USB subsystem processes waiting for the disk to catch up. Linux includes blocked-for-data-transfer processes in the load calculation, but you can spot them with a "D" state in top or ps.

Hope that helps,