Formatting Sata

**Ferrit** · May 31st, 2004, 11:32 AM

Just wondering if anyone has noticed time differences while formatting sata drives.
I have used both onboard Via sata controllers and Silicon Image onboard.
There appears to be a vast difference in the time it takes to format them as far as I can see using the same method.
Also using the same drives Seagate in particular

That is booting off the XP cd and create partition and format

The Via at least for me formats an 80 gig drive in minutes while the Silicon image is much much slower
Both controllers had the latest drivers

**ironwill99** · June 1st, 2004, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

Just wondering if anyone has noticed time differences while formatting sata drives.
I have used both onboard Via sata controllers and Silicon Image onboard.
There appears to be a vast difference in the time it takes to format them as far as I can see using the same method.
Also using the same drives Seagate in particular

That is booting off the XP cd and create partition and format

The Via at least for me formats an 80 gig drive in minutes while the Silicon image is much much slower
Both controllers had the latest drivers

I have noticed that Silicon Image controllers are MUCH slower than Promise or the built-in IDE controller. I can do a forensic quality "Drive to Drive" bit level copy of a 30 gig drive in about 20 minutes or less on a promise ata-133 controller to another drive attached to it on the second channel. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to do the same on a Silicon Image based controller. I don't know what it is about those that makes them suck so bad.