Hard disk is slower than it should be [Archive]

DJ Bobo

12th February 2009, 20:17

Hi

This is about an IBM DTLA-307045 hard drive that is connected to a GA-6VXE7+ (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=1434) motherboard from Gigabyte.
OS is Windows 2000.
The VIA 4in1 drivers are installed.

When tested with HD Tune, I get something between 15 and 16MB/s from start to end (almost a straight line!!), although this drive is supposed to start at 35MB/s and end at 17 as you can see HERE (http://www.hdtune.com/results/IBM_DTLA-307045.gif).
So it's like the interface is capped at UDMA16 or something, even though HD Tune is reporting that UDMA66 is active.

Anybody can help me on this one?

reepa

12th February 2009, 20:25

Make sure the HDTune block size is not too small in options->benchmark. Anything above 32kb should be fine.

DJ Bobo

12th February 2009, 20:44

HD Tune is using the default setting alright (64K), so the results should be accurate.

communist

12th February 2009, 21:56

IBM DTLA?! I wouldn't trust this any longer than necessary (google for IBM deathstar)!
Have you checked device manager and the BIOS? Do they list UDMA?

DJ Bobo

13th February 2009, 01:48

As far as I can tell, there is no option in the BIOS to change the DMA mode.
But when the PC boots, it shows UDMA66 for the hard drive.
I'm actually suspecting something wrong within Windows, since I've done the transfer test under DOS, and I got similiar results to those of the screenshot.
Windows does show "Ultra DMA mode" though.

b66pak

13th February 2009, 02:33

Konrad Klar

13th February 2009, 04:15

yes it is...select your drive...hit enter...change transfer mode to auto...save and exit...if it shows UDMA66 on boot up then you are using a wrong cable...you need a ATA100 (or ATA133) cable...for UDMA66 is usual to get 15-16MB/s...
_
Strictly speaking you need 80 wire cable (40x signal + 40x isolator).
40 wire cable (without isolators) is sufficient for ATA33 and slower modes.
Anyway 16MB/s you are achieving is even less than ATA33 max. transfer.

DJ Bobo

13th February 2009, 11:00

b66, as you can see on Gigabyte's page, the motherboard is not supposed to deliver anything higher than UDMA66. So it's actually a good thing that the boot screen is reporting this speed.
And the cable has 80 wires alright.
As said, outside of Windows, I get up to 35MB/s, so I'm looking for a solution for Windows if possible.

Sharktooth

13th February 2009, 17:16

Your disk is probably working in PIO mode under windows even if it says it's UDMA in the BIOS POST screen. That's due to some sort of "intentional" bug of the microsoft ATA/IDE management...
Open Device Manager, remove the IDE channel driver where the disk is attached then press F5 (if it's the primary disk you need too do it in Safe Mode then reboot).

Shinigami-Sama

13th February 2009, 19:59

like sharktooth said, just force windows to re-detect it and you should be good

b66pak

13th February 2009, 22:18

i don't think is PIO mode...it supports only up to 10MB/sec...and you have 15-16MB/sec witch is OK for UDMA66...if your bios is detecting the HDD transfer mode as UMDA66 you can't do anothing in any OS...my be a bios update will solve the problem...
_

Konrad Klar

13th February 2009, 22:57

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_input/output

Sharktooth

14th February 2009, 04:32

@b66pak: PIO mode 4 supports up to 16MB/s, so it makes me think... ;)

DJ Bobo

14th February 2009, 12:06

It's UDMA alright, Windows is reporting Ultra DMA and CPU usage is very low (under 5%)
Anyway, after reading your suggestions, I thought I'd do it the hard way, I went and reinstalled Windows, I even tried Windows XP, it didn't help, the hdd is still capped at 16MB/s.
I think the drive is going toward its death, like communist suggested. No wonder after 8 years of service. It's that I read somewhere by Microsoft that Windows reduces the speed of the interface until no CRCs are reported. I think this is what's happening here, it seems like Windows finally settled on UDMA16 after trying all higher modes.

Poor drive :(

b66pak

14th February 2009, 23:39

@Sharktooth this are teoretical values...in day by day use you get maximum 50%...
_

Konrad Klar

14th February 2009, 23:46

@Sharktooth this are teoretical values...in day by day use you get maximum 50%...
_

So official specificatons are made for whom? For philosophers? :confused:

b66pak

15th February 2009, 00:24

Konrad Klar

15th February 2009, 00:41

man from your signature i get your mobo is sata 300 (sata 2) compatible and your HDDs too....despite your SATA RAID when you EVER will be able to write on your HDD with 300MB/sec (witch is the marketed!)?
_

I believe that max actual transfer of controller is as high as given by specs. Cannot test it at this time.
Max sustained transfer of my RAID0 is ca. 145MB/s at beginning (measured by HDTune). So as high as factory promised too.
Ok. In everyday use transfer is limited by filesystem overhead, I may agree here, but values given by DJ Bobo was "15 and 16MB/s from start to end". So it was sustained speed.

Cheers and regards.

DJ Bobo

15th February 2009, 00:59

Yeah, no hdd would give the same speed from start to end. Normally it would go from 100% to 50%, as shown in the graph. My drive is definitely capped by Windows!

By the way, b66, I think you misunderstood the other guys: nobody is sustaining that an ATA66 hard drive should perform at 66MB/s, what they're saying is: a UDMA66 interface allows up to 66MB/s. And for once in the PC world, this is one of the rare interfaces where you get what you see: if it says 66, it really allows 66! no kidding! You can try it yourself, put a recent hdd on an old mobo like this one, you'll see that it will be capped at 65 to 66MB/s ;)

b66pak

15th February 2009, 01:06

i have sata 1 (150) mobo with two sata 2 HDDs: from HDD1>HDD2 60MB/s...from HDD1>HDD1 30MB/s...from RAM>HDD1 60MB/s...sata 150 is marketed as 150MB/s!!!...do the math...
_

Konrad Klar

15th February 2009, 01:19

b66pak

15th February 2009, 01:38

So speed of your HDDs is bottleneck, not speed of controller.
If your retailer promised you that you can achieve 150MB/s with SATA1 controller regardless of connected HDD's transfer, he was cheater and liar.

that was good...if you read carefully you will see that a have sata 2 (sata 300) hdds - so it is nothing wrong with them...i give up...this is the my last post in this thread...
_

DJ Bobo

15th February 2009, 06:49

b66, you're still misunderstanding. Like Konrad said, the limitations you mentionned are due to your hdds, not to the SATA interface.
I invite you to study this document: http://www.tomshardware.com/de/VelociRaptor-WD,testberichte-240011-11.html (site is in german, but the bench graphs are in english).
As you can see, the VelociRaptor can achieve more than 120MB/s for reading as well as writing! Put 2 VelociRaptors in a RAID-0 array and SATA150 is not enough anymore ;)