Windows 2000 and ATA 100 hard disks

Drazhar · 01-11-2002 12:10pm #1

has any one ever heard of this problem

Windows 2000 does not support ATA 100 (Mode 5) for IDE hard disks. All ATA 100 IDE hard disks that are used with Windows 2000 default to ATA 66 (Mode 4).

taken from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q260233

has anyone ever downloaded the fix for this?? Its just that i ve a program, speedfan, running every now and again that monitors temperatures in the PC. It also has this Harddrive performance thing, where my 40gb is at about 50%. Yes it is ATA100

leeroybrown · 01-11-2002 2:51pm

First Published: Apr 20 2000 12:13PM

Win2k has been Service Packed more than once since this article was originally written. I would presume that M$ will have fixed this in one of the SP's.

RicardoSmith · 01-11-2002 2:56pm

Is this not a problem that is solved with the service pack 1 or 2? I certainly haven't had any problems with my ata100 disks in w2k over the 2 yrs I've been using it.

netman · 01-11-2002 4:44pm

This was fixed with service pack 1, and there was a hotfix for this issue before service pack 1 was released.

If you visit your windowsupdate often enough you won't have this problem

Drazhar · 01-11-2002 9:35pm

dont trust windows update

nuts, i was hoping it wasnt in the SP's, im up to SP3.

ah well, tanx anyway, sorry for bothering u

netman · 01-11-2002 9:48pm

your hard drive might be fragmented, or it could be slower than their reference ata100 drive, or you might be running the performance test on a partition that's nearer the end of the drive. it will all bring lower results than expected.

you're better off getting a diagnostic program that will show you the ata mode of the drive. sisoft sandra does the job quite well.

Drazhar · 01-11-2002 10:13pm

hey ive started the thread, so here:
I have a kr7a-raid board. I have the 40gb and a zip drive on primary IDE, DVD and Burner on other, and a really old 10GB on RAID 0. I think the 10gb is ata66.

Now the analogy of a chian being as strong as its weakest link comes to mind, could this be it. I do have thoughts of a nice 80gb goin in, but dont really need it.

RicardoSmith · 01-11-2002 11:20pm

The zip drive could be holding the hd back. Have you tried dis connecting it from the ide cable. As far as I know the slowest drive on the cable will determine the fastest speed for both drives.

sutty · 02-11-2002 12:24am

theres your problem right there mate. Hard drives should be placed on the IDE RAID channels. regardless if they are in an array or not. Place the main booting drive as master on the first RAID channel and the second drive as master on the second. Then have all other devices use the IDE channels. In the BIOS set the boot devies as ATA100 or what ever the RAID Channels are again. then go into the high point BIOS and make sure there is a boot option set to the drive you want it to be

RicardoSmith · 02-11-2002 12:35am

Have to say it never made any difference on my machines if the hd was on the raid or not. But it did make a difference if you hooked up a non ata100 device on the same cable.

Gerry · 02-11-2002 12:37pm

I'm presuming you have the latest via 4-in-1 drivers also.

netman · 02-11-2002 12:52pm

Originally posted by Drazhar
hey ive started the thread, so here:
I have a kr7a-raid board. I have the 40gb and a zip drive on primary IDE, DVD and Burner on other, and a really old 10GB on RAID 0. I think the 10gb is ata66.

er you got it right there. in a raid0, the data read/written to the raid array is split up amongst the drives in the array. normally you make up the array of identical drives, so you don't lose storage space or performance.

if you have the raid0 array set up with 40gb ata100 and 10gb ata66 drives, then not only will you lose performance as the ata100 drive will have to wait for ata66 drive to read/write data, but you'll also lose 30gb of storage, as only the first 10gb of the 40gb drive will be used in raid0.

i would also hazard a guess that your ata66 drive is much slower than the ata100 drive. older technology usually means lower density and it could have a slower rotational speed.

sutty · 02-11-2002 1:13pm

Originally posted by netman
er you got it right there. in a raid0, the data read/written to the raid array is split up amongst the drives in the array. normally you make up the array of identical drives, so you don't lose storage space or performance.

if you have the raid0 array set up with 40gb ata100 and 10gb ata66 drives, then not only will you lose performance as the ata100 drive will have to wait for ata66 drive to read/write data, but you'll also lose 30gb of storage, as only the first 10gb of the 40gb drive will be used in raid0.

i would also hazard a guess that your ata66 drive is much slower than the ata100 drive. older technology usually means lower density and it could have a slower rotational speed.

Netman, you got it wrong from what he said. He doesn't have the 40GB drive on the raid channel and what I beleave he means from the RAID 0 part is the first channel on the RAID controler. Also just because you have the IDE drives on a highpoint controler doesn't mean you need to setup an array. You can have both drives set to use ATA100 or 133 depeanding on your controler. But you should only have hard drives on them. CDrom's and what not dont get any real proformance increase.

netman · 02-11-2002 2:19pm

heh, i thought it sounded a bit weird. when someone mentions raid, it could be a controller or an array, but when you say raid0, i always think of raid array in striping mode.

sutty · 03-11-2002 6:24pm

True, I my-self find using the High point controler as a second set of IDE channels (no arrays) is better. While you may see some incress in proformance off a RAID 0 array. I dont think its worth the troble. IE: something going wrong with the controler and you need to access the data on the drives or want to use them on the normal IDE channels or on someone elses PC. AFAIK you cant access anything on the drives with out the RAID controler then.

Drazhar · 04-11-2002 2:50pm

Have latest Via, Gerry.

Zip aint holding it back, was the same before i put the zip in.

Sutty, tanx for the advice. I'll have a go at it at the weekend, kinda busy with college. I am using the raid channels as secondary IDE channels. Basically the 10gb holds a backup of my MP3z and my apps, basically a backup drive. It isnt accesed that much, but is accessed enough to make disconnecting it not an option

"what I beleave he means from the RAID 0 part is the first channel on the RAID controler" <- yes i do

Tanx for all your time lads

RicardoSmith · 05-11-2002 1:00am

Well did you try disconnecting all the drives except the one you are having problem with?

If you do and you still have the problem maybe its a problem with the bios on the motherboards and perhaps you should check if there are any updates for it?

sutty · 05-11-2002 11:17am

Oh I almost forgot, go into the device manager and go to the IDE channels. Make sure they are all set to use DMA if avable. As for the 10gig. You dont need to take it off the system. Just move it to the second high point controler. Then move the 40gig on to the first one and in the high point BIOS set it as the boot device. (you'll see the option in there) also set the high point controler as the boot device in the normal BIOS. (ATA100RAID) or something to that affect.

Windows 2000 and ATA 100 hard disks

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