Tech Master Guide

What do you mean by SATA?

SATA (serial advance technology attachment) is the new interface standard for hard disk drives that uses serial communication instead of parallel. This new technology promises higher data transfer rate than a conventional PATA hard disk (normal hard disk in old systems), and also reduces the clutter caused by the parallel cables inside the cabinet with smaller and thinner connecting cables.

Why doesn't Windows 2000 or XP detect my Serial ATA disc drive during installation of my operating system?

This may happen if the required drivers are not installed. SATA (serial ATA), FC-AL (fibre-channel-arbitrated loop) and SCSI host bus adapters may require additional drivers provided by the HBA (Host Bus Adapter) manufacturer to be installed during setup. To specify ‘additional mass storage device’ (this means disk drive) for Windows 2000 or XP during setup, press [F6] during the boot into text-mode Setup. At this point insert a floppy containing the drivers. If the drivers came on a CD, you must copy them to a floppy diskette before this step in order to install them. If you are replacing your boot drive, you may have to change the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the Serial ATA controller (sometimes represented in the boot order as the drive model number and sometimes as SCSI). If your motherboard has onboard serial ATA connectors, you should have been prompted to install the drivers for them when you installed the motherboard. If you didn't install them at the time of the motherboard installation, then you should be prompted during a Plug and Play process by your OS to provide drivers. We recommend going to the serial ATA controller manufacturer's Web site for the latest drivers.

Why can I only see 127 to 137 GB of my 160+ GB drive?

The Windows 137GB Capacity Barrier is also known as 48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support for ATA (IDE), Serial ATA or ATAPI disc drives. The 137 GB limitation does not affect SCSI interface disc drives. In order to properly access the full capacity of an ATA interface hard drive larger than 137 GB, your system must meet the system requirements described below. There are three general methods of support: 1. Operating System Solutions for Windows XP and Windows 2000 2. Ultra ATA/133 PCI controller card for Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98 SE and NT4.x 3. Intel Chipset Solutions for Windows Me, 98SE and NT 4.x (partial)

Does the current generation SATA drive provide any performance gain over the conventional 7200 rpm hard disk?

As such there has been no performance gain by using the current generation SATA drive, but this will definitely improve as newer drives that will natively supported by the motherboard are introduced. The only good thing about the new SATA drives is the less cluster created by the smaller and thinner wires improving the thermal dynamics and air flow in the cabinet and the ease of use since there are no jumpers to manage and no master-slave concept to implement.

Disc drive data rates have not exceeded ATA100 limits yet, why should I switch to Serial ATA?

The maximum internal data rate on an IDE disc drive today is ~72 MB per sec. The ATA/100 data transfer rate has not been reached but one of the reasons IDE performance is where it is today is due to the expandable data path PATA has allowed. That data path in PATA has reached its limit. Serial ATA allows disc drives to continue to offer performance and reliability at cost parity to Parallel ATA. In addition, Serial ATA interface requires less voltage meaning better power consumption and management in both desktop and mobile applications. The thinner cable allows for flexible designs and improved airflow in smaller form-factors.

Can I use Serial ATA hard disks with my existing system?

To use Serial ATA drives your motherboard has to provide a SATA interface. Newer motherboards with chipsets like KT400 for AMD and 865 and 875 for Intel provide support for SATA. Also keep in mind that there is no primary/secondary drives in SATA. You can connect only one SATA device to a single interface.

What is the difference between the special 80-conductor IDE cables used to connect faster hard disks and the older 40-conductor cables?

An 80-conductor cable is used to connect an ATA/100 and ATA/133 hard disk drive to the system. Older IDE cables were based on a 40-conductor format while the new IDE interfaces allow high-speed data transmission. The possibility of data transmission error is minimised by adding an additional ground line alongside each of the 40 conductors in the older cables. This provides shielding to the data along these cables. An 80-conductor cable enables the newer compliant drives to operate at the optimum speed of the newer IDE interfaces.

Why do my applications slow down over time?

Every time you work with an application, the operating system creates numerous temporary files that are required by the active applications. These files tend to scatter all over the hard disk. Also, when you add or delete programs and files, it creates unused clusters of small empty spaces. Later, when files and applications are stored on the drive, they take up these spaces and are therefore scattered throughout the drive's storage area. Now, when an application or data needs to be read from the drive, it has to search for its related files all over the hard disk, which slows down the applications. Regular defragmentation of the drive will solve this problem to a large degree.

What is a hard disk buffer used for, and how does it affect its performance?

A hard disk's buffer is a small amount of high-speed memory that is used to temporarily hold data that is written to and read from the hard disk drive platters. The size of this buffer dictates the amount of information that can be concurrently written to and read from the hard disk. Applications where a larger buffer will lead to noticeable performance increases include audio and video editing, file servers and other applications where a lot of data transfer occurs over the hard disk over extended periods of time. Drives today feature buffer sizes ranging from 1 MB to 8 MB.

Windows 98 or better

Windows 98 has a much more efficient disk subsystem than Windows 95, which allows better writing to the hard disk. This can significantly improve capture quality and editing speed. Windows 2000 is preferred over any other Windows version. Windows 95, 98 and Me will not allow AVI files over 2 GB. If you use Windows 2000 or XP, there is no such limitation, but do turn off some of the operating system's memory-hogging features if you use XP.

Boot faster

Before Windows loads, it processes certain files to set the correct environment and load initial drivers and Windows settings. The config.sys typically loads drivers and the autoexec.bat sets the environment and runs programs before Windows loads. If these files are loading any unnecessary items, you should remove them. Both files can be edited in Notepad.
A third file, the msdos. sys, sets several parameters for Windows. It specifies the Windows folder, the location of the startup files, behaviour of the boot menu, etc. Changing a few parameters can ensure faster booting of the operating system. If any parameters exist, you can change its value, or simply add a line with the parameter. Before you can edit this file, however, you must strip its read-only and hidden attributes. To do this, open a Command Prompt window and type this command: attrib -h -r msdos.sys
When Windows is not shut down properly, it automatically runs Scandisk when it boots again. You can disable this by using AutoScan=0. Setting its value to 1 will bring up a prompt asking if you want to run Scandisk and setting it to 2 will run Scandisk automatically. BootDelay=x sets the amount of time you have to press [F8] to bring up the boot menu. The default value for this is 2 seconds. If BootMenu is set to 1, it will always bring up the boot menu, BootMenuDelay sets the number of seconds this menu is displayed for, before booting with the default selection. When BootWarn is set to 0, Windows will boot to Safe Mode without warning, whenever it does not start properly.
By now, you probably have FAT32 on all drives, so disk compression utilities will not work. You should disable the driver for this by setting DblSpace and DrvSpace to 0. Also, if you do not have a SCSI controller, set DoubleBuffer to 0. You can disable logging of the boot process by setting the value of DisableLog to 1. Setting SystemReg to 0 will disable scanning of the Registry at startup, but it is better to leave this on.

XP Choose performance

To maximize performance of Windows XP. Right click My Computer icon -> click properties ->switch to the Advanced tab -> click settings button -> under performance. Choose “Adjust to best performance”. Note : This will off all graphic effects, but you will notice a boost in speed.