Slow HD performance after OS Install

[BoboKatt]

Can the way I formatted and partitioned my 30 GIG Maxtor IDE (7200 RPM 2 Meg cache) drive make a HUGE difference in performance? I had this same drive in my own computer that I had originally fdisked and formatted using a Win98 disk and Fat32. Had WinXP pro installed and ran like a dream for many months.

Now i take that same drive and gave it to my dad. His new AMD Sampron box with a new Asus Micro ATX board... I reformatted and repartitioned using the WinXP Pro Cd and then formatted it to NTFS5. With WinXP pro installed it is officially the slowest drive I have ever seen. IT takes 12 seconds to open up Word or Excel... and I have 1 Gig of RAM. It was fast and quiet before and now it's slow and loud.. any ideas?

thanks..
I placed this in the General and just realized this belongs here.. sorry

 

[MrChad]

Your issue is probably not the file system.

Have you double-checked to make sure that DMA is enabled on your drive? Are your motherboard chipset drivers installed?

 

[nweaver]

from quiet to load may indicate a pending hardware issue

also do like MrChad said, check chipset IDE drivers, and check DMA

 

[mechBgon]

1) is his computer free of viruses and spyware, because they'll slow down even local browsing sometimes

2) are the motherboard's chipset drivers installed

3) is the drive's controller using UltraDMA mode (open Device Manager, expand the ATA Controller listing, double-click the Primary & Secondary ones and look at the Advanced tab on each)


NTFS might be a little slower than FAT32 but it shouldn't be night & day.

 

[BoboKatt]

All good points. I should have mentioned that I did verify in the Device Manager that is does indicate (DMA Mode if Available) and sure enough it shows Ultra DMA mode under it. However the interesting part is that my Samsung burner although it too shows DMA Mode if Available and Ultra DMA mode under it.. if I query it under Nero it shows DMA mode off and I cannot burn a CD properly. I cannot for the life off me enable DMA as there is no option.

I did install the IDE drivers from SIS (741GX chipset) and also installed the GART and Audio/Video drivers. Nothing seems to make a dif as the slow and loud issue is from the system starts powering up. What I will do tonight is place it back in my original system and see what gives. I want to eliminate the possibility that it is the Sis IDE controller...

Thanks

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: BoboKatt
All good points. I should have mentioned that I did verify in the Device Manager that is does indicate (DMA Mode if Available) and sure enough it shows Ultra DMA mode under it. However the interesting part is that my Samsung burner although it too shows DMA Mode if Available and Ultra DMA mode under it.. if I query it under Nero it shows DMA mode off and I cannot burn a CD properly. I cannot for the life off me enable DMA as there is no option.

I did install the IDE drivers from SIS (741GX chipset) and also installed the GART and Audio/Video drivers. Nothing seems to make a dif as the slow and loud issue is from the system starts powering up. What I will do tonight is place it back in my original system and see what gives. I want to eliminate the possibility that it is the Sis IDE controller...

Thanks

Are the hard drive and the CD-RW on separate IDE channels? Don't rule out the possibility of faulty IDE cables as well.

 

[BoboKatt]

Gahh I bet it is the cable... I should have for the FIRST thing tried a different IDE cable. Stupid me. LOL and it's the quickest fix too if that is the problem. Will check tonight.

Also the burner is on the same channel IDE cable as slave as my hard drive. I will place it on its own tonight though. However for my testing I had the CD burner unplugged to remove that issue but again very good point. Thanks!