Hi Possum, I agree with you on the setup and that two devices connected on the same IDE will only run at the speed of the slower device, however this is only true if you are using both of the devices at the same time. For example: If I have a hard drive that is ATA 66 and another that is ATA 100 the limitation is only when copying files and such from one hard drive to the other. In other words both drives are being used at the same time. If the ATA100 is the Master then it is not limited in speed by the the slower drive when performing task in which the slower drive is not being used. Mesich

0

Then that is what I will do. 2 HD on Primary and the CD-ROM as Sec.Master with the CR-RW as Sec. Slave. Thank you. Mesich I am glad you mentioned the ATA factors. I bought and returned the 40gb HD because it would not work on my machine due to the 32gb limit and my particular BIOS (Award 4.51) but I also noted that it was ATA133. If I did not have the 32gb limit would this ATA133 work on my machine but just not at the ATA133 rate. I realize that I could get an ATA adapter card to use it at the 133 but again not feasable per Intel for the 440bx chipset I am running on a Biostar M6TBA MOBO. I ask becasue I can find a 30gb ATA133 Maxtor. Will it work if I simply install it? Bryan

0

Hi Bryco, Sorry it took so long to respond. My high speed internet connection is down and I just go the old dial-up 56K modem going. Simply, yes you can just hook up the ATA 133 hard drive to your computer. It will run at the speed of the ATA 100. Take Care, Mesich

0

ATA = Advanced Technology Attachment. ATA rate is determined by the motherboard. How can I tell what ATA rating my PC is using or set at? I have completed the successful installation of the CD-RW device. It was quite the process as I performed it. I used Partition Magic and Norton Ghost along with a lot of WinME Defrag. My 20GB HD is now C: and E: as Master at ~10GB each requiring a change in cluster size from 4kb to 8kb (on all partitions). I had to merge and then reallocate the free space on each. My 13GB HD is now D: and F: as Slave on the Primary controller. My CD-RW is Master and the CD-ROM is Slave on the Secondary controller. Through this process I have had to read every manual involving my PC. In none of them did I see any mention of the ATA numbers involved with each or any of these devices or motherboard. Nor can I difinitively determine if I have an AT or ATX case. It there a direct association between UDMA and ATA? I believe the original 13GB hard drive is UDMA33 whereas the 20GB is definately Ultra ATA 100 (It says so on the box). The M6TBA System Board manual states: "The mainboard, a Pentium II micro-processor based PC/ATX system..." Under Features: - Supports 33MHZ PCI bus speed - Supports 66MHZ / 133MHZ AGP Bus Under PCI Enhanced IDE Built-in On Board: - Supports four IDE hard disk drives - Supports Ultra DMA/33, Bus Master Mode - Supports high capacity hard disk drives - Supports LBA mode Under Dimensions(ATX form-factor) - 30.5 cm X 20 cm So after reading the exerpted info above I suspect it is saying that it is ATA33 but will support ATA133. ATX - It powers off by itself after going to Start, Shutdown, Shutdown so I suspect it is ATX and not AT. Am I even close to being correct? Thanks for staying with me on this. Bryan

0

Just wanted to let you know I am still following the post. I have just downloaded the manual for your motherboard and will post back after checking it out. Mesich

0

Hi Bryan, Enter you bios setup. Select the Integrated Peripherals Setup Menu. You will see 8 settings for PIO and DMA for the different Primary and Secondary IDEs. Ensure all of them are set to Auto. Save the changes and exit. After Windows loads restart the computer. When you see the Bios Configuration Screen during the boot press the Pause Key. Look for your hard drives. This will show whether the drives are using PIO Mode or DMA Mode It will list one of the following: PIO 0 PIO 1 PIO 2 PIO 3 PIO 4 DMA 0 DMA 1 DMA 2 It should also show whether it is ATA 33, 66, 100 or 133. Post back with the info. Take Care, Mesich

0

"You will see 8 settings for PIO and DMA for the different Primary and Secondary IDEs. Ensure all of them are set to Auto." They are all set to Auto. "Look for your hard drives. This will show whether the drives are using PIO Mode or DMA Mode " It does not show this information. I thought perhaps the info is above the visible screen area so I used TweakUI to bypass the Windows Welcome screen and the info is not displayed anywhere that I can see. Bryan

0

Hi again Bryan, To answer your questions in response #10. Your board is ATX. You bios supports UDMA33. Your PCI slots will support up to a 33Mhz bus speed. Expansion slots for your modems, Nics ect... The AGP slot for your Video if used will support 133Mhz bus speed. Since you have set all the DMA and PIO settings to Auto in the bios is should, most of the time does, detect the best settings for the hardware connected to the IDEs. Try doing a Benchmark on your computer from PC Pitstop and see what it says about the hard drive speeds. PC PitStop Post back. Mesich

0

I did not see a specific 'Benchmark test' but I ran the 'Full Test' Here are the results although the formatting to this post is not so friendly: Overall: This is a fast system that should meet all your computing needs. Subsystem Description Performance Configuration System Intel Pentium III, 800MHz Memory 384MB RAM Disk Drives C, D, E, F Video Intel740 Win9x PV4.0 with Video Capture Internet MSIE 6.0; T312461 Windows Windows 98 Security Your Score: 355 There were no tips for anything but Security because I am not using Restricted Zones in Outlook or IE, For the Disks I got: Disk Drive Letters These are drive letters associated with hard disk drives. This list does not include drive letters for floppy disks or other removable media such as CD-ROM, DVD, Zip or Jaz drives. Description Drive C Drive D Drive E Drive F Partition format FAT32 FAT32 FAT32 FAT32 Cluster size 8 KB 8 KB 8 KB 8 KB Drive label PC-S875 BGFT1ST MAX 2ND BGFT2ND Size 9756 MB 6120 MB 9756 MB 6104 MB Free space 4854 MB (50%) 6013 MB (98%) 4801 MB (49%) 5371 MB (88%) Drive health OK OK OK OK Last scan Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Data fragmentation 2% 0% 0% 0% File fragmentation 0% 0% 0% 0% Last defrag Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Sat Feb 22 2003 Junk files 1 MB (0%) 0 MB (0%) 0 MB (0%) 0 MB (0%) Cached speed 125.84 MB/s (95%) 129.06 MB/s (97%) 128.17 MB/s (96%) 130.01 MB/s (98%) Uncached speed 5.1 MB/s (142%) 2.6 MB/s (73%) 3.93 MB/s (110%) 2.66 MB/s (74%) Drives C: and E: are the newer ATA100 and D: and F: are the older UDMA33 drive. There was no mention anywhere about ATA factors. I looked at everypage. Bryan

0

Your bios has made the correct settings for your hard drive. Notice the speeds you listed for cached: C:125.84 MB/s (95%) New Drive D:129.06 MB/s (97%) Old Drive E:128.17 MB/s (96%) New Drive F:130.01 MB/s (98%) Old Drive I'm sure you have already noticed the difference is not much between the new and the old drive. Now lets look at the uncached speeds: 5.1 MB/s (142%) New Drive 2.6 MB/s (73%) Old Drive 3.93 MB/s (110%) New Drive 2.66 MB/s (74%) Old Drive About twice the transfer rate of your old drive which shows the bios has setup the drive correctly. Your Primary Master is actually 142% faster than that of others with the same type of computer you are using. That doesn't surprise me much as I am well aware of your vast knowlege and know you perform the many tasks in keeping the computer "cleaned up". It looks as though the bios has set the old hard drive as PIO-0 which the fastest data rate is 3.3Mb/sec and set the new drive as PIO-1 in which the fastest data rate is 5.2Mb/sec. The bios probably doesn't support PIO-3 or PIO-4. You could change this by flashing the bios. I DON'T recommend this as you are probably running quite well as it is. Another nice little tweak is to Enable DMA in the Device Manager for your New hard drive. You new hard drive will support it but I am not sure on your older drive so I wouldn't try it with that one. Run PC Pitstop again after doing such and see the difference in transfer rate. Most see the difference in just starting up the computer and opening applications. Mesich

0

Mesich, Thank you again as usual. I truely appreciate your valuable input. Both drives remain with the DMA selected in Device Manager. What is your confidence level that a 30gb ATA133 drive will work as good as the drives I have now? If it will work I want to get one even if I do not install it now. I would like to get one before they are no longer available. The one at Staples that is available is a 7200 rpm drive. The two I have now are both 5400 rpm. What do you think? Go for it? Bryan

0

Hi Bryan, It will work fine. I would go ahead and get it. I've built computers for people who do not have much money and searched for some 10Gb hard drives trying to save them a few nickels. Cannot get them locally anymore. I wish I would have bought a closet full while they were still available at a resonable price. I as you believe the 30Gb drives are headed in the same direction. Get it while you can and at a good price. Take Care, Mesich

0

Mesich, Thank you very much. Bryan

0