Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of MikeMCSD
MikeMCSDFlag for United States of America

asked on

Second hard drive too slow

The hard drive I added has 2 problems:
1. it is very slow when opening videos and other files.
2. when I burn something from that drive using Nero, it
    doesn't work and Nero gives me an error at the end of the buring process.

main drive: 60g hard drive with just a C: partition
second hard drive: Maxtor 160g  with F: G: H: I: partitions.

Now I just want to get a bigger drive and put everything on it.
Is this problem normal for all second drives?  thanks
Avatar of FriarTuk
FriarTuk

is smart enabled on the drive in the bios & if so is it reporting any errors?

(hdd diagnostic utils) Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm

Avatar of btassure
And how are they connected?

IDE/SATA?

If IDE is the first drive primary master and the other one the secondary master?
Get some actual benchmarks of the drive so that it isn't just perceived slowness - HDTune is a great program for this: http://www.hdtune.com/

Might be a conflict between the two drives, it happened to me with Western Digital hard drive connected as the primary slave
with a Maxtor drive as the primary master.

Try removing the primary 60GB drive, and connect the Maxtor as the Primary Master.

You don't have to install an os just to try it out, just try it with Knoppix or some other live os that you can boot from cd or dvd rom.

In knoppix there is even a burning tool so you can try to burn something too !

SOLUTION
Avatar of adstew
adstew
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
try to move the hard to other ide and try to put it alone (don't put another hard on the same cable)
ALso check the DMA and or PIO settings in the Drive and IDE controller in Device manager.

I hope this helps !
Avatar of MikeMCSD

ASKER

thanks everyone . .
>> are hard drives on the same cable
     not sure, I'll have to check
I also have a CD burner and a DVD burner attached.

I could take out the CD burner, as adstew suggested, because
I don't really use it.

Should I put each drive on it's own cable?  The jumpers are set
to "auto select" and are not currently using Master/Slave.

>> Sounds like the second drive has reverted to PIO mode transfers.
      Would that be Device 1 below?

Here are the Properties for the  Primary IDE  Channel:

Device 0
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - Ultra DMA mode 2

Device 1
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - PIO Mode


I guess I should try changing
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\"...
before switching the cables and drives to see if that was the problem.
"... Would that be Device 1 below?" ==> YES.   And I've already told you how to fix it ==> Just do the mod and all will be well.

You do NOT need to switch  cables/drives/etc.  ==> just do the registry modification.

After you've done that, post the following:

WHAT devices you have connected to each of the 2 IDE channels.

The current properties for BOTH the Primary and Secondary IDE channels.

Note also:   Your current DMA mode is only at ATA33 speed.   Assuming the two devices on your primary IDE channel are both hard drives you may very well have a 40-wire cable on that channel.   That will restrict the transfers to ATA33 speed ==> you'll get MUCH better transfers if you replace the cable with an 80-wire cable !!
But before dealing with that, do the registry modification and post the info I just asked you for.
... just to re-emphasize it:  there is NO need to remove any drives and/or reposition them.   Get the PIO reversion fixed first.   The only thing you DO want to do (after that's fixed) is replace the cable with an 80-wire cable IF the primary channel is indeed where your hard drives are connected (note that mode 2 would be correct for an optical drive ==> that's why I want to see the details for BOTH of the IDE channels).
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I deleted MasterIdDataChecksum & SlaveIdDataChecksum
for 0003 & 0004 (0002 didn't have them).

The only thing that changed was
Ultra DMA mode 2 to Ultra DMA mode 5:

Here are the Properties for the  Primary IDE  Channel:

Device 0
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - Ultra DMA mode 5   << was 2

Device 1
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - PIO Mode


Here are the Properties for the  Secondary IDE  Channel:

Device 0
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - Ultra DMA mode 2

Device 1
Transfer Mode  -  DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode - PIO Mode


I guess I should run diagnostics on the disk.
Using Nero Info Tools, I found this:

Primary IDE  Channel:
  Master: WD Hard drive
     DMA on
  Slave:   Maxtor Hard drive
     DMA off

Secondary IDE  Channel:
  Master: DVD Burner
     DMA on
  Slave:   CD Writer
     DMA off

I saw this article:  http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/260038
FYI ... a switch from UDMA Mode 2 to Mode 5 TRIPLES the data transfer rate --> so that was a nice change in itself :-)

Since Device Manager has the right settings ... look very thoroughly in the BIOS Setup and see if there are any settings that enable/disable DMA transfers.   ... also check the jumpers on your slave devices (the 2nd hard drive and the CD writer) to be sure they aren't jumpered in a way that disables DMA transfers (not too many hard drives still have such a jumper ... but yours might).
I have a Dell OptiPlex GX270 and had this same issue when I installed a second hard drive.  The two drives are identical as the second one was taken out of another computer from the same lot.

Look in the BIOS and make sure that the setting for "Primary Drive 1" is set to "AUTO" and not to "OFF".

Even if it is set to "OFF", Windows will still recognize the drive.  However, since the BIOS has not reported that it is DMA compatible, Windows will use PIO instead.
thanks everyone,
I'll have to come back to this one later ..