hard drive running at UDMA 100??

[jetdriven]

I have an XP1800+ system with a ShuttleAK31A mobo and seagate barracuda UDMA 100 80 GB HD. I was reading about UATA controllers and I was wondering if I need this to make the HDD run at UDMA 100?? Or does the mobo control the HD at UDMA 100? How would I know? thanks

[namrak]

The hard drive is automatically configured to run at the highest speed out of the factory. However, the data transfer speeds is dependent on other factors such as motherboard support and cabling used and so it will drop to lower speeds such as UDMA66 or 33. I know the Shuttle mobo supports the speed and I hope you're using 80pin ATA66/100 cabling (typically with blue/black interfaces) attached to your Seagate hdd. Make sure this is all hooked up in the right IDE port (specified in your manual as being ATA100 or some message of that nature). Oh whoops!

And Welcome to Sysopt! :)

[jetdriven]

i believe i did the HDtach and it scored almost 50 mb/sec. The IDE cable for the HD is the same kind as what goes to my CDRW, gray, black plugs and a red stripe on one edge. is this the right cable?

[Midknyte]

You need an 80wire cable to use uata100. it looks like the normal 40 wire cable, but the wires are finer. usually, the uata10 cables have a blue header for the motherboard, black for master and gray for slave. :D

[namrak]

It looks like you're using the wrong cable. The one that you are using is most likely a UDMA33 cable. This is what is restricting your hard drive throughput.

Visual differences to look for. I like said before, the UDMA33 cable will have interfaces in black and gray colors. With UDMA 66/100/133 cables, they will only come in black,blue and gray interfaces on the cable.

Another thing to look for when examining the cable. If you can count roughly 40 wires in the cable, then its a UDMA33 cable. A UDMA66/100/133 cable's wiring is much finer and you should be able to count 80 wires. This makes it harder to round your own cables, but that's another story. :) If you don't have an 80-pin IDE cable, you can run down to your local shop and pick one up for about $5 or so.

Another tip...try to keep your hard drive(s) on the one UDMA66/100/133 cable and all other devices to a different cable. This will keep your hard drives from being slowed down by other devices. Hope this helps.

[otheos]

and it scored almost 50 mb/sec

No way he's using the old cable. You're fine. The old cable would have restricted you to 25-30MB/s in both STR and Burst. The newer one would allow the max STR of the drive ~40MB/s and the burst (~80MB/s). So if you remember such a high number you're ok.

[Kurylo]

If you wanna see if your HDD is running currently at DMS100 then do this:
My Computer --> Properties --> Hardware --> Device Manager --> IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers --> {the channel your HDD is wired to} --> Advanced Settings --> {see the device 0 or device 1 depending is your HDD master ot slave}.
If your HDD works in DMA100, then it will be written: "Ultra DMA Mode 5" there.