Slow HDD.

[Cliff Wild]

I installed a Maxtor 300G SATA that is just to slow to use. It takes 11
minutes to copy a 2 gig file while 60 seconds on PATA. Can someone please
tell me what could be wrong. I set up this drive with Maxtor utility as with
the dozen or so other Maxtor drives and got no indication of anything wrong.
I installed on Intel D915PBL w/Pentium 4 630 2 Gigs DDR2 PC2-4200. Anyone
with idea as to where to look for fix?

Thanks

CW

 

[philo]

I installed a Maxtor 300G SATA that is just to slow to use. It takes 11
minutes to copy a 2 gig file while 60 seconds on PATA. Can someone please
tell me what could be wrong. I set up this drive with Maxtor utility as with
the dozen or so other Maxtor drives and got no indication of anything wrong.
I installed on Intel D915PBL w/Pentium 4 630 2 Gigs DDR2 PC2-4200. Anyone
with idea as to where to look for fix?

Thanks

CW

Did you install the drivers for the SATA controller?
They should be on the cd that came with your mobo...
but you can also download them from Intel

 

[Cliff Wild]

Did you install the drivers for the SATA controller?
They should be on the cd that came with your mobo...
but you can also download them from Intel

I am pretty sure there must be a need to reinstall but I am not totally
sure. I am unsure how to go about finding out if there is a proper install.
If not then I need to know what the process would be to possibly reinstall
and do I have to uninstall first? I do not have a driver floppy handy and
need to know if I need a separate driver for each MoBo on different systems
or one driver will work for all. I also need to know about the setup of this
driver and if I am also setting up a RAID configuration. I only have one
drive and as far as I know two are needed is this not true. I have
downloaded and installed what I think may be the correct driver but from
what I read I need a floppy to boot with OS CD. Is there a utility that
creates this floppy? As you can tell I really don't know what I am doing
here and only have set up PATA drives.

Thanks for any assistance in this matter.

CW

 

[philo]

I am pretty sure there must be a need to reinstall but I am not totally
sure. I am unsure how to go about finding out if there is a proper install.
If not then I need to know what the process would be to possibly reinstall
and do I have to uninstall first? I do not have a driver floppy handy and
need to know if I need a separate driver for each MoBo on different systems
or one driver will work for all. I also need to know about the setup of this
driver and if I am also setting up a RAID configuration. I only have one
drive and as far as I know two are needed is this not true. I have
downloaded and installed what I think may be the correct driver but from
what I read I need a floppy to boot with OS CD. Is there a utility that
creates this floppy? As you can tell I really don't know what I am doing
here and only have set up PATA drives.

look in the control panel
and first see if there are any conflicts under hardware...

either way...look at your harddrive controllers
and see if there is one specific to Intel SATA

if not...go to the Intel website and download and install
and drivers needed specific to your particular motherboard...

although I have not installed any Intel SATA drivers...
I recently setup a few Intel motherboards and they required to
Intel-specific driver for the IDE controllers...
so I *assume* they'd need the drivers for the SATA controller as well

 

[Cliff Wild]

look in the control panel
and first see if there are any conflicts under hardware...

either way...look at your harddrive controllers
and see if there is one specific to Intel SATA

if not...go to the Intel website and download and install
and drivers needed specific to your particular motherboard...

although I have not installed any Intel SATA drivers...
I recently setup a few Intel motherboards and they required to
Intel-specific driver for the IDE controllers...
so I *assume* they'd need the drivers for the SATA controller as well

Ok, I have just learned that the driver is not installed. I am now having
difficulties finding the correct one for the chipset I have. I am trying to
do this from a System that has a different chipset and use it on the new
System(Not connected). The System is LGA775 82915G/P. I need to install
Application Accelerator but this attempt says I have the wrong application
for my chipset. I have gotten to here http://tinyurl.com/bys6e but can't
tell which DL I need. The more I look the more I get confused

CW

 

[Paul]

Ok, I have just learned that the driver is not installed. I am now having
difficulties finding the correct one for the chipset I have. I am trying to
do this from a System that has a different chipset and use it on the new
System(Not connected). The System is LGA775 82915G/P. I need to install
Application Accelerator but this attempt says I have the wrong application
for my chipset. I have gotten to here http://tinyurl.com/bys6e but can't
tell which DL I need. The more I look the more I get confused

CW

Your initial symptoms sound to me like you are operating in
polled mode, instead of "DMA, if available". Check the Device
Manager" and see what is being used. You can tell you are in
polled mode, if the transfer rate works out to 4MB/sec transfer
rate.

This web page goes over the basics:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

The modern Windows OSes have a "feature", where if there is a
communications problem with the drive, they slow down the
interface speed. After a number of these "gearing down" operations,
eventually you are stuck in polled mode.

So, I suspect hunting for new drivers to play with, is not
going to give instant gratification. I'd start here, and look
at the workaround.

"IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out
or CRC errors occur"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472

"WORKAROUND

To re-enable the typical, or faster, transfer mode for an
affected device:

1. Double-click Administrative Tools , and then click
Computer Management .
2. Click System Tools , and then click Device Manager .
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore
the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall .
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When
Windows restarts, the hard disk controller is re-enumerated
and the transfer mode is reset to the default value for
each device that is connected to the controller."

HTH,
Paul

 

[Cliff Wild]

Your initial symptoms sound to me like you are operating in
polled mode, instead of "DMA, if available". Check the Device
Manager" and see what is being used. You can tell you are in
polled mode, if the transfer rate works out to 4MB/sec transfer
rate.

This web page goes over the basics:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

The modern Windows OSes have a "feature", where if there is a
communications problem with the drive, they slow down the
interface speed. After a number of these "gearing down" operations,
eventually you are stuck in polled mode.

So, I suspect hunting for new drivers to play with, is not
going to give instant gratification. I'd start here, and look
at the workaround.

"IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out
or CRC errors occur"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472

"WORKAROUND

To re-enable the typical, or faster, transfer mode for an
affected device:

1. Double-click Administrative Tools , and then click
Computer Management .
2. Click System Tools , and then click Device Manager .
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore
the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall .
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When
Windows restarts, the hard disk controller is re-enumerated
and the transfer mode is reset to the default value for
each device that is connected to the controller."

HTH,
Paul

Thanks Paul. I will have to go over what you have posted. Looks like a bit
to read for now.

 

[Mike Walsh]

The drive is running in PIO mode. You need to enable DMA in windows.