External HDD slows down XP

[Malescot]

Hi everybody,

I just bought an Iomega 320 GB external HDD. I plugged it on my USB 2.0 PCI
Card, and everything works fine : the hard drive is recognized by Windows,
transfer rates are fast and so on. But as long as the HDD is on, the
computer is globally slower. It does not hang, I can still surf the web or
browse my hard drives, but programs take more time to start or stop, the
startup menu is a bit slower... As soon as I turn the external HDD off,
everything goes back to normal. I could not identify a specific process
using more CPU than usual in the task manager.

Any idea ? Did I forget something in the device manager options or anything
like that ? Thanks for any help.

Have a good day,

MALESCOT.

PIII 1 GHz, 1 GB SDRAM
Main Hard drive : Maxtor 120 GB, 7200 RPM, Fat32
External Hard drive : Iomega 320 GB 7200 RPM (that I eventually divided into
3 partitions, but it does not change anything to the general slowdown),
Fat32.
XP Professional SP2 + all updates

 

[Larry(LJL269)]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c13621675.mspx#EM3AG
says Windows XP Professional is designed to format FAT32 volumes up to
32 GB. To format volumes larger than 32 GB in Windows XP Professional,
you must use NTFS
& http://aumha.org/a/parts.htm says With FAT32, the inefficiency of
storing data does not appear until 8 GB.

I have same setup but no speed problems.

HTH-Larry

Hi everybody,

I just bought an Iomega 320 GB external HDD. I plugged it on my USB 2.0 PCI
Card, and everything works fine : the hard drive is recognized by Windows,
transfer rates are fast and so on. But as long as the HDD is on, the
computer is globally slower. It does not hang, I can still surf the web or
browse my hard drives, but programs take more time to start or stop, the
startup menu is a bit slower... As soon as I turn the external HDD off,
everything goes back to normal. I could not identify a specific process
using more CPU than usual in the task manager.

Any idea ? Did I forget something in the device manager options or anything
like that ? Thanks for any help.

Have a good day,

MALESCOT.

PIII 1 GHz, 1 GB SDRAM
Main Hard drive : Maxtor 120 GB, 7200 RPM, Fat32
External Hard drive : Iomega 320 GB 7200 RPM (that I eventually divided into
3 partitions, but it does not change anything to the general slowdown),
Fat32.
XP Professional SP2 + all updates

Any advice is my attempt to contribute more than I have received but I can only assure you that it works on my PC. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Malescot]

Larry(LJL269) a écrit récemment :

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c13621675.mspx#EM3AG
says Windows XP Professional is designed to format FAT32 volumes up to
32 GB. To format volumes larger than 32 GB in Windows XP Professional,
you must use NTFS
& http://aumha.org/a/parts.htm says With FAT32, the inefficiency of
storing data does not appear until 8 GB.

I have same setup but no speed problems.

HTH-Larry

Thank you. I converted the 3 partitions of my Iomega external disk into NTFS
: no change. The computer is slow when the external disk is on, even if no
data transfer is on course. I tried to change the PCI slot my USB 2.0 card
is in : no change. I disabled system restore on this disk : no change. BUT,
when I plug the disk on a USB 1 port, of course transfers are much slower,
but when no transfer is on course, the computer works at a normal speed.

I don't know what I can try... Thanks for any idea !

MALESCOT.

 

[Larry(LJL269)]

My card loads 1 USB2 driver & 4 USB1.1 drivers. R u usind MS driver or
PCI-USB2 Manuf driver? Mine only work with Adaptec driver- only
appears to work with MS(only reads & writes work).

So I'd try another driver if available or reload driver in Dev Mgr by
disabling USB2, do a directed install of driver where it doesnt search
for driver but u tell it exactly where it is, then enable driver. This
is only proceedure that worked for me.

Here is exactly what I did:
The best method of installing the Adaptec USB 2.0 drivers in Windows
XP is to disable the Microsoft drivers first and then update to the
Adaptec version of drivers. This can be done in the following order:

Download and extract the current version of Adaptec USB 2.0 drivers.
D/L to folder
F:\MyDocuments\Documentation\Hardware\USB\...\v31a driver#2 &
extract to folder F:\adaptec\usb2
Open up the Device Manager in Windows XP and branch down the category
Universal Serial Bus controllers. Disable 1x element with 'USB2' or
'Enhanced' & 2x elements with 'NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller'
each having a 'USB Root Hub' & possably more listed under it.
You will see a red "X" next to 'USB2' or 'Enhanced' entry. Rt-clk on
this entry and choose "update driver."
When the Hardware Update Wizard appears, select "Install from a list
or specific location (Advanced)."
In the next window choose "Don't search, I will choose the driver to
install" and continue.
The next window should show you the compatible models that XP has
found for the Adaptec card. Bypass this and choose the "Have disk..."
button.
Windows XP will by default look to the floppy disk drive for an
updated driver. Select the "Browse..." button instead and point
Windows to the folder where you have downloaded and extracted the
Adaptec drivers, namely 'F:\adaptec\usb2').
Choose the "adptusb2.inf" file and select the 'Open' button & 'OK'
button to continue.
You should now see the 'USB2' or 'Enhanced' entry renamed to something
like 'Adaptec...PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller'. Click the 'Next'
button to install it.
You may receive a warning that the driver "has not passed Windows logo
testing to verify its compatibility." This is normal for the driver
installation and you should select the "Continue anyway" button.
Windows should install the drivers and then will likely generate an
error window stating that XP 'had a problem starting the driver.' This
also is normal since we have disabled the driver ahead of time. Select
the "Finish" button to continue. The Device Problems Troubleshooting
Wizard may come up and ask you if you want to try to enable the
driver. Select the "Next" and "Finish" buttons to re enable the driver
listing.

This should enable the Adaptec 'Enhanced' listing for the card in the
Device Manager and the USB 2.0 drivers should now be successfully
installed.

I now repeated the process for 2x elements with 'NEC PCI to USB Open
Host Controller' but when the Hardware Update Wizard appears, select
'Search for driver update' rather than "Install from a list or
specific location (Advanced)." It didnt find a better driver
anyway-these 2 always use MS drivers as do the 'USB Root Hub's .

HTH-Larry

Larry(LJL269) a écrit récemment :

Thank you. I converted the 3 partitions of my Iomega external disk into NTFS
: no change. The computer is slow when the external disk is on, even if no
data transfer is on course. I tried to change the PCI slot my USB 2.0 card
is in : no change. I disabled system restore on this disk : no change. BUT,
when I plug the disk on a USB 1 port, of course transfers are much slower,
but when no transfer is on course, the computer works at a normal speed.

I don't know what I can try... Thanks for any idea !

MALESCOT.

Any advice is my attempt to contribute more than I have received but I can only assure you that it works on my PC. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Malescot]

Larry(LJL269) a écrit récemment :

My card loads 1 USB2 driver & 4 USB1.1 drivers. R u usind MS driver or
PCI-USB2 Manuf driver? Mine only work with Adaptec driver- only
appears to work with MS(only reads & writes work).

(...)

Thank you Larry. I eventually bought a USB 2.0 PCI card based on a NEC
chipset (first one was a VIA chipset), and the problem is solved, computer
is back to full speed !

Thank you,

MALESCOT.