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This might sound like a stupid question to some of you...

Jalapeno

Jalapeno

Senior member
When I booted up the last time I saw my HD running at ATA 33. I expected to see ATA 66 since I'm using a 7200 rpm Seagate along with a K7T Pro A2. So what the heck is going on? How can I get to ATA 66???
 
Are all of you IDE devices set to "auto" in the BIOS? And is PIO and Ultra DMA both set to Mode 4?
 
All devices are set to AUTO, and PIO is set to Mode 4. Ultra DMA though gives me only an "Auto" or "Disable" option. It's set to "Auto" right now.
 
Not a stupid question at all. I would think that any 7200 rpm drive should be an ATA66 version, although one really does not guarantee the other. Did you look up the exact model and see if its ATA66 capable? There are also utilities to disable ATA66 and force ATA33. This sometimes has to be done for compatibility with older mobos. These utilities will also identify the drives capability. I know WD and IBM have them. I assume Seagate does also. Check out the web site and see.

Also, do you have an ATA66 cable? It will have 80 wires instead of 40. The blue end goes in the mobo.
 
Yes, I do have the correct cable with the right end in the MoBo. It's a Seagate Barracuda ST328040A, which according to all the documentations and the Seagate website supports ATA 66. Do you guys know of any other settings in the BIOS that could affect this?
Here I am - running a freaking 1.1 T-Bird with ATA33 HD support - ridicolous!!!
Any ideas? Thanks!
 
Don't have that mobo, so I'm not very familiar with the BIOS. If its any consolation, you really aren't losing much, if any performance going to ATA33. Storagereview shows that drive having a maximum STR of about 28 Mb/sec, which is 5 Mb/sec less than ATA33 can handle. You may lose some of the burst speed, which is not all that important anyway. So, until you figure out the mystery, don't sweat it. Just enjoy the new drive.
 
Thanks for the effort guys!

It's frustrating though - here the whole world is raving aboot ATA100 and I'm running at 33. Yes, I know 100 is impossible nowadays, but at least I'd like to see that "66" figure which my system should be capable of. I will keep trying and keep you posted on my "success"...
 
<<here the whole world is raving aboot ATA100>>

Nah... nobody raves about this crap. You're just fine with ATA33.
 
You're not missing too much. The benefits of ATA66 over ATA33 are iffy at best and ATA100 is performance in name only.

Windogg
 
The only times I've had an ATA66 or ATA100 hard drive come up as ATA33 is when I either used a 40 conductor cable or put the 80 conductor cable in backwards. If you are using the correct cable and it is plugged in correctly then I'd suggest trying another cable. If that doesn't work and you can easily replace the hard drive, I'd give it a shot.
 
UPDATE!!

I'm running at ATA 66 now. Even though my Seagate is SUPPOSED to run at 66, they don't tell you one has to download a so-called &quot;ULTRA ATA/100 Configuration Utility&quot; from the Seagate site first to ENABLE that feature.
It's quite a hassle, you have to create a bootable floppy, copy that file to it, re-boot, command prompt to ATA100, install, reboot, bla, bla, bla,... Sucked.
You can find the file here, www.seagate.com/support/disk/drivers/index.html
if anyone is interested.

Do I see a difference in performance now? Not much, if any...

Thanks for the help guys!

 
That was what I was mentioning in my 1st post. Usually, they come with the higher ATA enabled, and you use the utility to force the lower mode if there is a compatibility issue with older mobos (it happened to me with a WD drive and an older socket7 mobo). Anyway, glad you got it fixed.
 
Oldfart,
is a MSI K7TProA2 an old board? Nope. I fully put the blame on Seagate for not supplying accurate documentation and the right configuration to begin with! I'll be looking at an IBM drive the next time..

Take care
 
It is very odd that it came setup for ATA33. Never seen that. I recently have worked with new IBM, Quantum, WD, and Maxtor drives. They all came setup for the higher mode as default. Was there any documentation alerting you about this feature?
 
I got an OEM Seagate, and as you know there isn't much ducumentation enclosed.
I don't know if it's any different for the retail version though. 66 should have been the default, yes.
 
Well... I dont its that big of an issue that they set it to ATA33. Its probably just for compatibility concerns. Since there werent much documentations, you really cant blame them for it.
 
OK, OK, I'm over my anger. I guess the only one to blame is myself for not looking deeper into it to begin with.

But hey, doesn't everyone blame the &quot;other guys&quot; first?

Oh yes, I have another question about my MUSHKIN stick not going to 222, (322 instead) but I'll do that tomorrow!

For now, take care.
 
Alright, we understand your frustration. If you want that question answer right now, Mushkin defaults all their RAM to 322, but they're actually all 222 capable.
 
LXi, thanks for the quick reply. (Hey, that even rhymes!)

I might just take on that topic since I'm still awake (kind of...)

I understand Mushkin defaults it to 322, but is there any way to unlock that 222 potential? So far I tried all (at least what I know) in the BIOS. Any tweaks?
 
Im not sure how exactly the MSI BIOS work, but if you take a look at this, it has some explainations on how to get it to run at 222.
 
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