mode 4 HD's

[Bob The Great]

I just got a used 605 MB seagate HD for windows to run off (it was $5). It's working great as a firewall against windows failing (I only lose windows, not my inportant files), and also my 8GB seagate seems to run faster without windows tying it down. My question is how much slower is mode4 then my other driver (ATA 33).

Just as a side note. For people that hate reformating because of the data loss. Try something like this! It works great! I have everything but windows main components on my other drive so if windows messes up, or I just feel like it "good bye!" I've even set my documents so all the info is stored on my other drive! It's great!

[Andy_L]

I think the above makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, the older drives were slower not only because of pio modes, but mainly the older drives were slower because of recent technology. I have never seen an older drive transfer at anything resembling 15 MB/s, more like 5 or 6.

[TerryT]

Hey Bob
If i am not mistaking, mode 4 runs at 16meg a second versus dma33 is 33megs a second.

Good advise about keeping data on another drive. I have split my 20 gig into 3 drives and when windows is running smoothly i just back up my entire c: drive to my last hard drive. That way if i ever have to format c, I just copy that last drive back to c. Seems to work everytime. I use only the last drive as backup drive.
This way I do not have to reload all my software all over again.

[Bob The Great]

Hey thanks!