Got a nice Maxtor 80gig ATA133 2mb cache. I decided yesterday to bench my file system using Sisoft Sandra...result; 21422Kb/s huh???...so i decided to use another benchmark program to see if Sandra was right...and she was. I got between 22mb/s to 25mb/s write and read...then got a new round cable ATA133(Startech) to link my hd to my board...same result!!!! I then used the Maxtor utilitie(PowerMax) to see if my hd had something wrong...pass all the tests with flying colors...i can surely run this hd at a higher speed!!! i expected at least 60 mb/s. I then came to Viarena...read a little bit here and there...came to the conclusion that i needed the miniport driver to enable UDMA6 that windows xp is unable to give. I'm still unable to run my hard drive passed 25mb/s...even worst i did not get more than 20-ish mb/s the last time i run the test. To add to the insult, im my device manager i see; primary and secondary BM Ultra DMA Channel(miniport drivers ok), Via Bus Master Ultra ATA "without" any drivers what so ever???? if i use windows xp to search for drivers it install the old ide drivers and then i'm stuck with 2 primary ide, 2 secondary ide, 2 bus master....6 items instead of 3. I uninstall miniport drivers and re-install and everyhting went back to normal....but i'm still stuck with UDAM6 that just won't do the job. Besides that little test i should never did...everything is in tip-top shape. You know the saying "What you don't know can't/won't kill you"....it taught me a lesson...i didn't know that i was doing 22mb/s and everything was fine....now i'm getting obssessed to be able to run the darn drive at 60mb/s. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Here's my complete specs; Athlon 1800XP aka Palomino MSI KT3 Ultra Via Chip;VT233A 512 ram pc2700 GF4Ti 4600 Sound Blaster Live! XGamer 5.1 Maxtor 80 gig ATA 133 7200rpm 2mb cache XP Home Full SP1 with all the updates

If you have a CD-ROM on the same cable as your hard drive, you'll never get more than ATA33 speeds. Another problem might be not having the VIA drivers installed.

My hard dirve is alone on it's cable...primary label on the drive and systen board label on the mobo...and i did a system restore to a couple of days ago when everything was fine...but i will stil run the hd at max 25mb/s!!!!!

jake's response (# 1) is incorrect...putting the CD-ROM on the same channel with the hard drive will NOT degrade hard drive performance & certainly won't drop your ATA133 down to ATA33 speeds...UNLESS they are communicating with each other!

Hey Jam. Give me a link to some info that backs up your claim.

Go to the motherboard maker's web site and check for any updates you might need. They have some pretty, user friendly software updaters. Maybe their updater can find something you are missing. Good Luck. Here is a thread to their site. Just copy and paste it into your web address window and click on go. http://www.msicomputer.com/support/msi_support.asp

Link to Jam's claim is not required. He is correct.