UDMA Question

[ellen]

I own a Dell Dimension 8250, purchased in 4/03. It's my understanding that
the Intel chipset (850E) supports UDMA 4 on the secondary IDE channel.
However,
my new Plextor 16x DVD burner shows up in Device Manager as UDMA 2, with no
option for UDMA 4. (My hard drive on the primary channel is UDMA 5.) I
called Dell and was told that there was a difference between the two
channels on my system, as the primary channel is assumed to be for the hard
drive, but looking at the Intel specs suggsets otherwise. I was wondering if
someone might shed some light on this. Swapping drives on the secondary
channel (right now the Plextor is master and my DVD drive is slave using
cable select), changing cables, uninstalling/reinstalling the IDE channels
does not make a difference, and I've checked the drive itself and it is
capable of UDMA 4. My OS is XP Pro, SP2. Thanks

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

UDMA Mode 2 is most you can get with any CD or DVD Burner.
UDMA Mode 4 or 5 is for hard drives only and would not really
benefit a DVD drive since it can only read or write at its designed
maximum speed.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

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:

| I own a Dell Dimension 8250, purchased in 4/03. It's my understanding that
| the Intel chipset (850E) supports UDMA 4 on the secondary IDE channel.
| However,
| my new Plextor 16x DVD burner shows up in Device Manager as UDMA 2, with no
| option for UDMA 4. (My hard drive on the primary channel is UDMA 5.) I
| called Dell and was told that there was a difference between the two
| channels on my system, as the primary channel is assumed to be for the hard
| drive, but looking at the Intel specs suggsets otherwise. I was wondering if
| someone might shed some light on this. Swapping drives on the secondary
| channel (right now the Plextor is master and my DVD drive is slave using
| cable select), changing cables, uninstalling/reinstalling the IDE channels
| does not make a difference, and I've checked the drive itself and it is
| capable of UDMA 4. My OS is XP Pro, SP2. Thanks

 

[ellen]

Thanks so much for your fast response, I confess that the various modes are
confusing to me - though the new Plextor 716A says it can support UDMA 4.