Fic sd11 - udma

[Cruz Medina]

Hi,

First of all I was not sure where to post this. If this is not the right forum, please tell so I'll post the question in the IDE forum (or whichever is appropriate). I just tried to avoid cross-posting.

I have a problem with the BIOS/HD/UDMA settings.

My system is a FIC SD11 with an Athlon processor running at 800 MHz, 512 MB of RAM. I've updated the BIOS to NC611, which seems to be the latest available update. I have two hard drives, a 20GB Samsung (SV2044D) and a 320 Seagate (ST3320620A). The smaller drive is the master and the other one is configured as slave, both on the same IDE channel. In the other channel I have a DVD writer. My OS is WinXP SP3.

My first problem is that the BIOS does not recognize the 320 GB hard disk. If I run the "Auto" configuration, the BIOS gets locked. However, WinXP recognizes it in its full capacity. I think this has to do with the 28-bit LBA limit and there is not much to do, but if anyone knows how to solve this, I'd really appreciate it. (Side question: if I install a PCI SATA controller, would I get the full SATA speed? Would this size limitation be overcome at BIOS level so that both drives are recognized?)

So, without being able to boot from the large drive, I am using the Samsung 20 GB for booting and OS. This drive is properly recognized by the BIOS.

My problem is that the 20GB drive seems not to be used at full speed. Checking with Everest in the Storage/ATA tab, I find this:

For the 20 GB Samsung
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 4 (ATA-66)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 0


For the 320 GB Seagate
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 4 (ATA-66)

AFAIK, the motherboard supports max. ATA/66 (UDMA 4), so the 320GB disk is at maximum transfer rate (motherboard limited), but the 20GB is running quite below, since it seems that it would be able to operate also at ATA/66 transfer rates (both motherboard and disk allow it), but it is operating at UDMA 0 transfer rates.

I made all the basic checks and everything seems to be OK, i.e. the HDD is ATA-66 compliant, the cable is 80 pin and the motherboard supports ATA/66. I've seen no option for specifiying the UDMA transfer mode in the BIOS settings.

I'd like to operate the 20GB HDD in ATA/66 mode, since it would give me 4x transfer rate (66,7 MB/s for UDMA 4 vs. 16,7 MB/s for UDMA 0) of what I have now. Since this HDD is the boot & OS drive, it would really help to have it running faster. I've also thought about moving the page file to the 320GB disk to improve overall performance, but it would be better just having the whole drive running at full speed.

Any guess?

Thanks in advance,

Alberto

[CCT]

Hello Cruz Medina:

Does that use an 80 wire-40 pin IDE cable on the hard drive controller?

Have you installed the latest chipset and ide bus drivers?

ftp://ftp.fic.com.tw/motherboard/dri...ilities_v1.27/

Unfortunately, FIC doesn't have the manual anymore online.

[Ferrit]

In the first place the drives are ide so,
(Side question: if I install a PCI SATA controller, would I get the full SATA speed? Would this size limitation be overcome at BIOS level so that both drives are recognized?)

You might as well forget about that or use an ide card.

Which will not make the 20 gig go any faster. It is not likely a ATA-66 so will not go faster no matter what controller it is on.
PIO mode is likely its best speed.
Frankly the difference between PIO and ATA-66 is truly tiny.
Those numbers you are quoting are likely best case scenario and only possible in a "best case scenario"
That motherboard is significantly older then the 320 gig seagate so its quite understandable that the bios cannot see it correctly.
You may be able to over come this with either a PCI-IDE card or by using jumpers on the harddrive to limit the size of the 320.
Seagate can advise there

[MobilePCPhysician]

Here is a utility that controls the noise level of the Samsung hard drive. It controls noise by shanging the speed at which it spins. This may help your problem.

http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/...l_name=SV2044D

[CCT]

A couple of interesting reference links:

http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic10737.html

http://www.itserve.co.nz/mainboard.htm

[slgrieb]

Wow! Talk about a stab from the past, Cruz! I still have a rig running with an 800 and an SD11 that I use sometimes for data recovery when my newer machine is busy.

The board doesn't provide native support for the 320 GB drive because it lacks 48-bit LBA support. If you buy an IDE controller card with its own BIOS, you can overcome that limitation. Highpoint makes a decent controller that's usually around $20-23.

[Cruz Medina]

Thanks everybody. I am just to buy new machine and I intend to use this one as a file server for pictures and music, that is why I was interested in using a new SATA card with some newer drives. I'll give a try to the drivers that you pointed out and let you know.

Regards.