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HDD Transfer Rate causing slow PC?

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - HDD Transfer Rate causing slow PC?

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I have 2 HD's. One 60GB Maxtor 5.4k and one 120GB 5.4k that came with HP a330n. Transfer rate on the 60 gig is about 32MB/s and the 120 gig is 3MB/s ... All programs and OS are on the 120GB .. Media/Backup is on the 60GB .. When I use disk doc. I can see it checking the sectors on teh 120 and it bounces all over the place, but on the 60GB everything is done in order and ALOT quicker and not because of the size.. Anyone have an idea on what could be causing this?

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Yeah theres something wrong with it. Try defragmenting it for starters.
If the hdd supports SMART then use speedfan or something to read the SMART status.
Make sure the ide(?) cable is plugged all the way in, I once had with my old ide hdd the cable poorly plugged in and it slowed it way down

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Kari

3MB/sec transfers indicates that the hard drive is stuck in PIO mode.

Follow directions at the bottom of this page to attempt to restore the hard drive to DMA mode.

If that doesn't work, post back, there is another undocumented procedure.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ - SomeJoe7777

"Did he dazzle you with his extensive knowledge of mineral water? Or was it his in-depth analysis of, uh, uh, Marky Mark that finally reeled you in?" - Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke), Reality Bites, 1994
Reply to SomeJoe7777

Kari wrote :

Out of all the attributes, I have 6 with an OK. and the others dont have anything. Will check the cable in a bit.

SomeJoe7777 wrote :

It is indeed in PIO Mode, and will not change to DMA.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to UPSer

There is a script out there that can reset your DMA(WIN XP)

http://winhlp.com/tools/resetdma.vbs

Save it and run it, reboot and see if its in DMA.....but it falling to PIO could mean the drive is going bad, or more commonly the cable is defective. Windows will put drives in PIO if it has trouble and errors writing and reading from them....

The code for the VBS. so you can see it

Code :

' Visual Basic Script program to reset the DMA status of all ATA drives
' Copyright © 2006 Hans-Georg Michna
' Version 2007-04-04
' Works in Windows XP, probably also in Windows 2000 and NT.
' Does no harm if Windows version is incompatible.
If MsgBox("This program will now reset the DMA status of all ATA drives with Windows drivers." _
& vbNewline & "Windows will redetect the status after the next reboot, therefore this procedure" _
& vbNewline & "should be harmless.", _
vbOkCancel, "Program start message" ) _
= vbOk Then
RegPath = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\"
ValueName1Master = "MasterIdDataChecksum"
ValueName1Slave = "SlaveIdDataChecksum"
ValueName2Master = "UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed"
ValueName2Slave = "UserSlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed"
ValueName3 = "ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess"
MessageText = "The following ATA channels have been reset:"
MessageTextLen0 = Len(MessageText)
ConsecutiveMisses = 0
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )
For i = 0 to 999
RegSubPath = Right("000" & i, 4) & "\"
' Master
Err.Clear
On Error Resume Next
WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Master
errMaster = Err.Number
On Error Goto 0
If errMaster = 0 Then
On Error Resume Next
WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Master
WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2Master
On Error Goto 0
MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine & "Master"
End If
' Slave
Err.Clear
On Error Resume Next
WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Slave
errSlave = Err.Number
On Error Goto 0
If errSlave = 0 Then
On Error Resume Next
WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Slave
WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2Slave
On Error Goto 0
If errMaster = 0 Then
MessageText = MessageText & " and "
Else
MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine
End If
MessageText = MessageText & "Slave"
End If
If errMaster = 0 Or errSlave = 0 Then
On Error Resume Next
WshShell.RegWrite RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName3, 1, "REG_DWORD"
On Error Goto 0
ChannelName = "unnamed channel " & Left(RegSubPath, 4)
On Error Resume Next
ChannelName = WshShell.RegRead(RegPath & RegSubPath & "DriverDesc" )
On Error Goto 0
MessageText = MessageText & " of " & ChannelName & ";"
ConsecutiveMisses = 0
Else
ConsecutiveMisses = ConsecutiveMisses + 1
If ConsecutiveMisses >= 32 Then Exit For ' Don't search unnecessarily long.
End If
Next ' i
If Len(MessageText) <= MessageTextLen0 Then
MessageText = "No resettable ATA channels with Windows drivers found. Nothing changed."
Else
MessageText = MessageText & vbNewline _
& "Please reboot now to reset and redetect the DMA status."
End If
MsgBox MessageText, vbOkOnly, "Program finished normally"
End If ' MsgBox(...) = vbOk
' End of Visual Basic Script program

Message edited by nukemaster on 01-05-2008 at 05:14:06 AM

------------------------------

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Reply to nukemaster

UPSer wrote :

It is indeed in PIO Mode, and will not change to DMA.

Perform the following procedure:

1. Update Windows XP to SP2 if you haven't done so already.
2. Make SURE the IDE cable you're using is an 80-conductor cable (blue connector for motherboard, black and gray connectors for devices), and is NO MORE than 18" long. If your cable doesn't look like this, trash it and get a correct cable.
3. Go into Computer Management, and click on Device Manager.
4. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
5. Double-click on the IDE controller that contains the hard drive that is stuck in PIO mode.
6. Go to the Driver tab, and click Uninstall to remove this IDE controller.
7. Restart the computer. Windows XP will reinstall the IDE controller during the restart.
8. After the restart, go back into Device Manager and verify that the IDE controller is reinstalled.
9. Run regedit, locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001

You may see more than one key under this node, you will have one for each IDE controller. For example, there might be:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0002
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0003

etc.

10. Inside each of the 0001, 0002, 0003, etc. keys, do the following:

Create a new DWORD value named "ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess". Set the value to 1.

11. Restart the computer.
12. Go back into device manager, make sure the offending hard drive is now in DMA mode.

The .vbs program that nukemaster posted essentially does the same thing.

Problem Solved!!! Thank you guys very much! Happy New Year To Everyone!

Reply to UPSer

Keep an eye on it. it it reverts again. check the cables....

------------------------------

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