update hard drive driver?

G

Guest

XP Home SP3 fully up to date.

Still looking at my 'interrupts' problem as noted in an earlier thread.

I fitted a new WD 800 BEVE drive recently, but this appears to rely on the
drivers already on my laptop and WD don't seem to offer them separately.

How do I update the windows drivers on my laptop.
Device manager says I am using a driver dated 01/07/2001 ver 5.1.2535.0.

How can I get a more up to date one?

Cheers,

S
 
T

Tester

There is no such thing as Hard Drive Driver. You better see a
technician to look at your system because you don't have enough
knowledge to maintain your laptop. You really need to learn to state
the problem instead of guessing the solution to the problem that does
not exist!.

hth
 
G

Guest

If there is no such thing as a hard drive driver then perhaps it would be
better if Windows did not give a date and version number of the driver in
the drive properties and I would have no reason to ask the obvious question
as to whether there has been another version since 5.1.2535.0. To which I
would still like a sensible answer. I did not ask to solve any problem I
just asked if there was a later version of whatever is referred to as a
driver by my windows operating system.


The point of these groups is to help people get by without resorting to
technicians and, thanks to reading several of them I have now apparently
solved the 'interrupts' problem, and have posted my solution to it. Thanks
to all those who provided the background info for me to sort that one
eventually. The IDE controller settings seem to have gotten mixed up at
some point. Here is the thread (there are also other interesting threads if
you google for interrupts in this forum):

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...nk=gst&q=interrupts++spamlet#1220c0d7490d7aba

I have been maintaining my laptop and several pcs for a number of years, and
generally have been able to fix just about anything thanks to these groups.

Cheers,

S
 
T

Tester

Spamlet said:
If there is no such thing as a hard drive driver then perhaps it would be
better if Windows did not give a date and version number of the driver in
the drive properties and I would have no reason to ask the obvious question
as to whether there has been another version since 5.1.2535.0. To which I
would still like a sensible answer. I did not ask to solve any problem I
just asked if there was a later version of whatever is referred to as a
driver by my windows operating system.
Click to expand...

Yes there is a another version of "MICROSFT DRIVER" for your hard drive
but you need to buy either Windows Vista (not recommended here) or
Windows 7. If you can't buy either of these (and I don't recommend you
to go out and buy any of these just for the latest Microsoft Driver!)
then try to find other possible solutions to your problem.

If you state your problem clearly then I perhaps somebody will provide a
solution here.

My personal opinion is to reformat your HD and start everything all over
again so that everything runs cleanly. However, please ensure that all
hardware connections of your laptop are not messed up because if there
is a hardware problem, then nothing can resolve it without fixing it.

Hope this helps.
 
P

Paul

Spamlet said:
XP Home SP3 fully up to date.

Still looking at my 'interrupts' problem as noted in an earlier thread.

I fitted a new WD 800 BEVE drive recently, but this appears to rely on the
drivers already on my laptop and WD don't seem to offer them separately.

How do I update the windows drivers on my laptop.
Device manager says I am using a driver dated 01/07/2001 ver 5.1.2535.0.

How can I get a more up to date one?

Cheers,

S
Click to expand...

I can see two sets of drivers, that play a part.

Starting with Device Manager...

If I look in IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, I have

Intel ICH9R 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2920

The drivers for that are:

atapi.sys (Microsoft)
pciide.sys (Microsoft)
pciidex.sys (Microsoft)

The reason those drivers are being used for the motherboard
hardware controller, is because the hardware controller is in
a "vanilla" operating mode (IDE emulation). Since the hardware
uses standard register definitions, a built-in driver can be used.

If I go into the BIOS, I can change modes. I can choose AHCI
or RAID. If I do that right now, the computer won't boot,
because there would be a driver mismatch. But rest assured,
if I reinstalled WinXP, pressed F6, offered the driver CD
to get an AHCI driver etc etc, I could fix that.

The second item I see in Device Manager, is Disk Drives. In
there, is my ST3250310AS SATA drive. The drivers for it include:

disk.sys (Microsoft)
PartMgr.sys (Microsoft)

That dialog is a bit deceiving. On the one hand, the main dialog
for the ST3250310AS shows

Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0

But, if I go look at disk.sys on my C:, it shows

disk.sys
April 14, 2008

Version 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2108)

which is a hell of a lot later than that bogus "7/1/2001" thing.

If you want to know where the "7/1/2001" thing came from,
look with a text editor (Notepad) at mshdc.inf . That string
is what got extracted and displayed in Device Manager.

DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.5512

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.
It's been patched since release.

Microsoft drivers are used with the disk. In my case,
Microsoft or Intel drivers would be used with the hardware
controller (Southbridge). If I switch the BIOS interface mode
to AHCI or RAID, I'll need the Intel driver for my ICH9R Southbridge.

If your percent CPU is low, while accessing the disk, then
you have nothing to worry about. Partially, that will indicate
you're using DMA for data transfer, rather than PIO.

If I run HDTune, run the benchmark (to check drive speed),
then pop up Task Manager and watch how much CPU is being used,
I get about 4 percent (with some moment to moment variation).
The dialog in HDTune, after the benchmark completes, shows
2.1 percent CPU usage. In any case, not much CPU is being used,
when 95MB/sec of data is being transferred into system memory.
I feel not much of my system resources are being used, when the
disk is being accessed, based on those results.

Paul
 
J

Jim

A hard drive is " a lump of metal " ; it`s the software program on the
hard drive that requires the driver .
 
S

smlunatick

XP Home SP3 fully up to date.

Still looking at my 'interrupts' problem as noted in an earlier thread.

I fitted a new WD 800 BEVE drive recently, but this appears to rely on the
drivers already on my laptop and WD don't seem to offer them separately.

How do I update the windows drivers on my laptop.
Device manager says I am using a driver dated 01/07/2001  ver 5.1.2535.0.

How can I get a more up to date one?

Cheers,

S
Click to expand...

All standard hard drive that use IDE(PATA), SATA, USB and Firewire
connection all usually use the the built-in Microsoft storage
drivers. Depending on the versions of Windows, you would normally
have the correct driver for hard drive access. As for interrupt
problems, you would need to posts the complete message. In general,
when a interrupt problem, you might need to either install, or update,
the motherboard chipset drivers.
 
W

W. eWatson

Hi, Tester. A slight interruption here. I tried to mail you directly,
but that didn't work. Take a look at my recent post about Meinberg. You
seem to be well acquainted with their s/w.
 
G

Guest

philo said:
didn't see your previous post

if you want help it's best to state your problem
with the exact details

what ever your problem is...
it's unlikely a driver update is what's needed
Click to expand...

My problem in this thread has (unusually) been that some replies have chosen
to try and answer a question that I have not asked, while not answering the
simple one that I did ask. The other problem to which I referred was
solved, and the solution is printed in the appropriate thread to which I
have given a link in my reply to Tester - which he still hasn't bothered to
read because he continues to ask me to restate 'what is my problem'...

Between you, you have all helped answer my actual question though, so NNTP
comes up trumps as usual.

Cheers,

S
 
G

Guest

Tester said:
Yes there is a another version of "MICROSFT DRIVER" for your hard drive
but you need to buy either Windows Vista (not recommended here) or Windows
7. If you can't buy either of these (and I don't recommend you to go out
and buy any of these just for the latest Microsoft Driver!) then try to
find other possible solutions to your problem.
Click to expand...


Thank you: that is more like the information I was looking for.
If you state your problem clearly then I perhaps somebody will provide a
solution here.
Click to expand...

My post was a question: not a problem.
Paul has answered my question in more detail and I now see that I am using
the same 2008 disk.sys as him.

I gave you a link to the problem (solved with help y Paul and others) that
led me to notice my driver appeared to be so old.

Thanks,
S
 
G

Guest

Paul said:
I can see two sets of drivers, that play a part.

Starting with Device Manager...

If I look in IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, I have

Intel ICH9R 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2920

The drivers for that are:

atapi.sys (Microsoft)
pciide.sys (Microsoft)
pciidex.sys (Microsoft)

The reason those drivers are being used for the motherboard
hardware controller, is because the hardware controller is in
a "vanilla" operating mode (IDE emulation). Since the hardware
uses standard register definitions, a built-in driver can be used.

If I go into the BIOS, I can change modes. I can choose AHCI
or RAID. If I do that right now, the computer won't boot,
because there would be a driver mismatch. But rest assured,
if I reinstalled WinXP, pressed F6, offered the driver CD
to get an AHCI driver etc etc, I could fix that.

The second item I see in Device Manager, is Disk Drives. In
there, is my ST3250310AS SATA drive. The drivers for it include:

disk.sys (Microsoft)
PartMgr.sys (Microsoft)

That dialog is a bit deceiving. On the one hand, the main dialog
for the ST3250310AS shows

Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0

But, if I go look at disk.sys on my C:, it shows

disk.sys
April 14, 2008

Version 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2108)

which is a hell of a lot later than that bogus "7/1/2001" thing.

If you want to know where the "7/1/2001" thing came from,
look with a text editor (Notepad) at mshdc.inf . That string
is what got extracted and displayed in Device Manager.

DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.5512

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.
It's been patched since release.

Microsoft drivers are used with the disk. In my case,
Microsoft or Intel drivers would be used with the hardware
controller (Southbridge). If I switch the BIOS interface mode
to AHCI or RAID, I'll need the Intel driver for my ICH9R Southbridge.

If your percent CPU is low, while accessing the disk, then
you have nothing to worry about. Partially, that will indicate
you're using DMA for data transfer, rather than PIO.

If I run HDTune, run the benchmark (to check drive speed),
then pop up Task Manager and watch how much CPU is being used,
I get about 4 percent (with some moment to moment variation).
The dialog in HDTune, after the benchmark completes, shows
2.1 percent CPU usage. In any case, not much CPU is being used,
when 95MB/sec of data is being transferred into system memory.
I feel not much of my system resources are being used, when the
disk is being accessed, based on those results.

Paul
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul,

That clears it up (thorough beyond the call of duty, and very interesting!),
and I now see that I am using the same disk.sys as you, though there are
still a surprising number of copies of earlier versions knocking about in
the file system too.

Thanks to you and Tim Meddick for helping me solve the interrupts problem
too: seems to have stayed stable since reinstalling the IDE controllers.

Cheers,

S
 

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