Slow HDD

[CathJ]

I really need some help with a seagate hardrive. Since I got it, it's been very slow.

I have PIO 4 and UDMA 4 enabled in the bios.

The device manager shows that "use dma if available" is set, but that the current transfer mode is pio.

If I run hd tune, it reports that the drive supports udma 5, and its report of the current transfer mode matches whichever udma speed I set in the bios.

At udma 1, the hd tune read test gives an average speed of about 0.8. At udma 2 it reaches 1.5, and at udma 3 and 4 it sits around 3.4.

So my questions are:
1) why does the device manager report pio when hd tune says udma?
2) how do I get the drive to work at a more reasonable speed?!

 

[gregmcc]

Maybe the following article will help:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modesUDMA-c.html

Do you have one of those newer HDD cables. (80 pins)

What's the model no. of your HDD and mobo?

 

[Dolby]

Holy **** ... I don't even understand what she just said!

 

[boramk]

+1

 

[Conradl]

Check the cable as mentioned above, it should be an 80 wire (they all have 40 pins)....

 

[Keeper]

At udma 1, the hd tune read test gives an average speed of about 0.8. At udma 2 it reaches 1.5, and at udma 3 and 4 it sits around 3.4.

0.8,1.5 and 3.4 what? MB/s ? seektime?

 

[SilverNodashi]

Do a SMART test on the HDD (download some tools, speedfan works great) and see what it reports. Generally is SMART start giving errors, the HDD will become very slow as well.

 

[CathJ]

0.8,1.5 and 3.4 what? MB/s ? seektime?

MB/s, sorry

It could be the cable... it's a fairly old system, and I just used the old cable when I put in the new drive.

Thanks

 

[mercurial]

Try uninstalling the IDE/ stuff in the Device Manager. Then restart your pc and see if it's all back to UDMA.

 

[LazyLion]

Try uninstalling the IDE/ stuff in the Device Manager. Then restart your pc and see if it's all back to UDMA.

Ja, +1.... delete the device from device manager... reboot and let windows re-detect the controllers. It should then come back in full DMA mode.

I had to do that recently.