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Hard Drive Woes!

M

mAdD INDIAN

Diamond Member
I'm running Win2k on an P2-450 with an ASUS P2B. The motherboard supports ATA33. Now I was recently burning a CD using my Sony CDU928E (2xW, 8xR) and I got a buffer underrun error. So then I decided to use the Adaptec EZ Creator 4 "system tests" to test the speed of my hdd. I was appalled at the speeds I got! My Western Digital Caviar 6.4GB ATA33 hdd got the following speeds:

Small Files: 3450kb
Large Files: 347kb <<--wtf is this??? I knew my hdd was slow..but not this slow!!!

I ran the tests a couple of times and I got the same results. Oh yeah..the configuration: the hdd is primary master while the cdr is secondary slave. DMA is enables for all devices!

What can I do to make the hdd faster?? I don't wanna burn cds at 1xR!!

Thanks.
 
If large files are spread out all across your hard drive and are fragmented, it will take a LONG time to piece them all together.

On my Asus P5A SS7, which only had ATA33, I never had a problem burning at 4x, although sometimes straight from the hard drive 2 was all I could get without burning an image first, then 4x was never a problem.
 
Fragmented eh?? Thanks...I'll defrag the hardrive today.

On another note: another hardrive (in another computer) gives a partition table error when it boots up. It had Win2k installed on it. How do I get rid of hte error so Win2k can boot up without me re-installing it?? I can get DOS to run using a Win98 boot-up disk.
 
Well for one, the large files will be slightly slower than small files. Plus fragmentation is taking its toll. Second, that drive is slow to begin with, and that 3.4MB/s on small files is not abnormal for that drive.

To correct that bad drive, first try deleting every partition with fdisk from a DOS floppy. If that doesn't work download a zero fill utility from your drive manufacturer. The zero fill may be labeled a low-level format utility, but it is really a zero fill. I know maxtor, WD, IBM, and seagate all have them. I was unable to find one for Quantum, but the Maxtor one is universal and should be safe to use with any ATA drive. Of course both of these solutions will loose all data on the drive.

And lastly, Youre running Adaptec Easy-Coaster creator. The adaptec software is well known to have problems with buffer under runs. Version 4.0 is much better than the 3.x series but not as good as WinOnCD or NERO. (DirectCD sucks compared to PacketCD -- PacketCD can be read in ANY win98+ version of windows WITHOUT any special utilites)
 
I did not know that about Adaptec EZ Creator. I always used that to burn CDs..also my CD-Recorder is not the best in the world. It does not even support DAO. You would think a Sony CDR would come feature packed...but I guess not.
 
Actually Sony/HP are some of the most buggy and featureless drives out there, compared to thier current competition anyway.
 
Woah there, no way. Sony....I absolutely hate their software that is included with their drives. HP on the other hand makes good drives, and the Adaptec EZ-CD Creator works great. Buggy? Nope, it works great. Their older ones and the older version of the Adaptec were not all that great, but I had a 2X HP and it ran flawlessly also. Mainly I use FireBurner for images, and EZ-CD for anything else. I do need to get a better CD Copier than that adaptec POS one.
 
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