ide vs raid bios setting for sata drive

[LeeG]

My friend has a single sata drive with the bios set as raid. I think this
should be set to ide but am unsure. I am wondering if this setting is
affecting the performance of their computer. What do you think?

 

[Alec S.]

LeeG wrote (in

My friend has a single sata drive with the bios set as raid. I think this
should be set to ide but am unsure. I am wondering if this setting is
affecting the performance of their computer. What do you think?

Not likely, in fact RAID can be used to increase performance (although your
friend’s configuration does not really qualify). Exactly which BIOS setting are
you talking about? What is it called? I doubt that there is a setting that will
cause the drive to have lower performance, but there are settings that could for
example cause the system to take an extra few seconds to boot up because it
unnecessarily scans for a RAID configuration.

 

[LeeG]

As I recall there was three settings available in bios. IDE/RAID and another
which I cant quite remember. This setting is to set the interface, probably
not the right word, for that drive. I am running the same set up on mine and
am curious as to if there is any performance difference between the two
settings. My bios options are more extensive but without looking I can't
remember the choices. The main reason I was asking the question is because
they have norton 360 and it is bogging their system down, especially at start
up and I am looking to try to increase the performance to compensate. I am
probably onto a loser but thought I would give it a try.

 

[Alec S.]

LeeG wrote (in

The main reason I was asking the question is because they have norton 360
and it is bogging their system down, especially at start up and I am
looking to try to increase the performance to compensate.

And you just answered your own question. The poor performance is because of the
Symantec software. Their software does work pretty well, but it is poorly built.
The software often comes in thousands of files which of course means a lot more
file access just to start up. More importantly, their software /does/ stuff at
startup. In this case an anti-virus app usually checks for and applies updates
(which usually locks up the system for a bit until it’s done), and often does a
scan.

Does it remain bogged down all the time or just for a while after boot? If it’s
constantly bogged down, try tweaking the AV’s settings. If they don’t do a lot
of risky activities like downloading and running questionable software, then
disabling the background scanner and just doing a scheduled or scans is an
option. Another is to find another anti-virus app that doesn’t create as big of
a performance hit.

 

[LeeG]

I have tried tweaking the AV as much as possible without compromising the
system. They are not computer savvi and therefore need the computer to run
without too much intervention by themselves. I don't think that they
realised that what Norton360 would be like. I have told them to lose it once
the subscription runs out. It doesn't say much about norton when a dual core
2.8 intel with 2.5gb ram gets bogged down. The slow down is mainly at boot
up but it also has an effect on surfing and other utilities but to a lesser
degree.

 

[Alec S.]

LeeG wrote (in

I have tried tweaking the AV as much as possible without compromising the
system. They are not computer savvi and therefore need the computer to run
without too much intervention by themselves.

You could try disconnecting from the Internet connection and disabling it
altogheter for a bit (including a reboot) to see if it is entirely the 360 that
causes the problem.

The slow down is mainly at boot up but it also has an effect on surfing and
other utilities but to a lesser degree.

Sounds exactly as expected. It has a bunch of work to do when the program first
starts up, and then slows things down again when it scans whenever you run apps
or browse the Internet.


I’m still using McAfee for my anti-virus and often leave the background scanner
disabled, turning it on only when needed, because it tends to slow things down
qutie a bit (of course I have it set to scan the heck out of everything).