Losing DMA after rip attempt- what to do

[candsh]

It seems that Windows has a trap that after 6 errors on a drive it automatically reverts to PIO mode and can defy all attempts to reinstate it to DMA. We think that some phantom program has done this to us since we can't delete the drive and when reinstalled by windows,,,,,well, it still says PIO.
Found this and thought I would pass it on. A very simple way to get the DMA back ( if you are comfortable in the Registry).

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

Go to this web page or Google "Turn on DMA" the only thing I can pass on is the Master and the Slave drives will be found under separate subtitles. I was in the same trap and this worked like a charm for me

[blutach]

Since XP SP1 at least, Windows auto recovers after it successfully reads some bytes AFAIK.

Regards

[candsh]

I am completely up to date SP2 and was so frustrated I was shopping for a new drive and was reading of several others having the same problem. Thought we had all been zapped!

[movax]

Hmm, so maybe Starforce isn't always responsible for shunting drives back into PIO mode. :)

[setarip_old]

@candsh

Hi!

The following procedure has proven successful in re-establishing DMA, when the cause of switching to PIO mode is the "6 errors" event:

In the Device Manager (via the Control Panel>>System>>Hardware>>Device Manager), you simply have to remove the applicable IDE channel (Click on "IDE...Controllers") and let your computer reset it to DMA as follows:
Right click on the pertinent channel in Device Manager
Click on uninstall
Reboot
After rebooting go back to Device Manager and change the setting to "DMA if available"...