hard drive problem

[Ryan Lintker]

Hi folks, I wrote the long version a minute ago, but lost the post due to my inability to not hit the back button after the preview option.  Here's the short version, I'll give the long version later if necessary.

Hard drive failure, must rebuild system.  Buy new WD 120 gig HD w/ 8mb cache.

Install new HD.  Install and update Win 2k pro.  Happiness abounds.  Start using fresh system.  Notice HD can't keep up with DVD burner at 4x, now takes 45 min to burn dvd.  Notice HD can't keep up with media player while I am browsing files in directories on HD.  Things start to stutter when I start scrolling quickly into new territory or when I rapidly click around on various files.  98% of the time everything is peachy, but when I need access to a lot of data or just the file info on many files, the HD light burns bright and steady.

I've been trying for a while now to find an answer on the web.  No luck.  Now I'm bothering all of you.

Drive isn't fragmented
I think I used win 2k to partition and format when I installed OS
NTFS file system

Any ideas/suggestions/comments?

Thanks in advance,
Ryan

[Chris Swingler]

It's been a while since I've touched a Windows box, but it sounds to me like you might have the drive in PIO mode, not DMA mode.  Check the settings for your drive controllers in the System control panel.  If it's in PIO, the only way I've found to effectively switch it back (in my experience with XP)  is to remove your drive controllers from the device manager, reboot, and let plug 'n pray run it's course.

[Ryan Lintker]

A big thanks and a gold star for Beanie.  Now half of the problem has been solved.  While my HD wasn't in PIO, my cd and dvd drive were so now they work much better.

As far as the hiccups, maybe I can just chalk them up to an overburdened aging system.  I just don't remember having this problem much before.

Anyway, thanks again

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

You should check you device manager and see if there are any yellow question marked system devices.  Forgetting to install the Bridge controllers and or other mother-board devices can make your system run really slow because Windows defaults to the minimum speeds for all of these devices.  I have found that this is particularly the case with Intel 8####LLL devices.  You can get drivers for these devices from the mother-board manufacturer’s website.  I cannot remember what Intel calls them but the PnP data should be somewhat illuminating.

In general, you should never have any outstanding devices in your device manager.  You are not really done rebuilding a machine until they are all gone.