hard disk question?

[Quoch]

hi guys, i am relatively new to this but i just recently read somewhere that the standard windows 98 IDE drivers (Generic IDE Disk Type 47, its called i think) are useless or pathetic because its slow and you can't enable ultra DMA mode in Windows. is this true?

if so i wondered if anyone called pass me links or suggestions to update my drivers. if i do know how to eventually update it would i need to re-format my disk or something to do so and if not would i lose any data if i update?

thanks

heres my chipset and HDD spec:

MSI 6166 Board - Intel 440BX Chipset with intergrated ATI graphics (16meg agp)
Seagate Barrucada Ultra ATA/66 ST320430A
win 98 se

since i own a 440bx chipset i would have to settle for ata33. i looked on the seagate website for updates but it doesn't seem to have any for my model. But i manage to visit the intel site and found a 440bx compatible ide update which is called, Bus Master IDE Drivers V3.02, i mean would this be ok. your opinions would be appreciated, thanks for reading the long post.

 

[monkied]

In win98, you can enable dma. go to your system properties and find your hdd. but i have heard that getting the manufacturer's ide drivers can improve performance. I have a via chipset(amd kt133a) that uses via's 4 in 1 drivers that include the ide driver. I don't notice any big perforamance gains, but I use it nonetheless. If the intel drivers don't work, just use the generic one and enable dma. hope that helps some.

 

[kly1222]

Stick with the windows intel bx drivers....they should perform best. It should say Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller in your device manager under hard disk controllers. You will be able to enable dma with that seagate....I owned one until I recently sold it on these forums. I also have a bx board, so I should know. Don't worry when it says Generic IDE Disk Type 47, it's because the controller doesn't give windows the name and model of the drive.

If you enable dma for a hard drive in windows and you can't boot up back into windows afterwords, don't worry just yet. Go into your bios, disable udma, and force your drive into pio 4 mode. I did this once and windows would let me boot in to uncheck the dma box and reset everything back to the original settings.