Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Hard and ide

Running short on cache?

Aanidaani — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:46:27 -0800

Hard drive issues: Frequently when I attempt to open a folder on my Windows Vista partition I will have to wait 5 seconds or so for the drive to spin up (I hear it). Is there some way I can fix my cache or otherwise set up the drive so that it doesn't need to spin up every time I access files on my root drive? I recently installed a new SATA drive to replace my failing IDE drive. I've divided it up into two partitions, one to store documents and another to hold my Windows Vista installation. Accessing files on both partitions is fine, it's just that there is a long delay (~5 seconds) whenever I try to access the Vista partition in Windows Explorer or through a save/open dialog.

I'm wondering if there is some way to increase the cache size so my hard drive doesn't need to spin up constantly or if there is a completely different issue at fault here that I don't understand. Any help would be appreciated.

Hard drive pain.

gjc — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:15:04 -0800

Highly technical hard drive filter: My hard drive failed. Came home, and PC was sitting at the "where's my hard drive" BIOS screen, to my great horror. My question is more of a "please confirm my diagnosis" and "what have I missed" sort of thing. Hard drive does not spin at all. In fact, it does nothing at all. Doesn't spin, click, hum, vibrate, whine. And the PC doesn't see it.

I looked at the controller board and could find no burnt spots nor any visual indication that something was fried. I even pulled off the board to make sure the contacts were clean. Completely fine, visually. If I give the drive a twist along the axis of the platters, I can hear them move, so I know the platters aren't stuck. And there is nothing rattling around inside.

So my thinking is that the controller simply went belly up, and if I go out and get another identical hard drive and swap controllers, it will function long enough to get the data off. I have done this in the past with success, on an older IDE drive of the 4GB vintage. This drive is a 7 year old SATA drive.

But there are comments on websites saying that there is "tuning" information on the controller, and thus it won't work. I'm not sure I believe that- sounds more like scare tactics perpetrated by data recovery people to drum up business. But maybe not? Is the bad sector table stored on the board?

Anyway, thanks in advance.

NoIWillNotFixYourComputerFilter

Lockeownzj00 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:49:42 -0800

NoIWillNotFixYourComputerFilter: I've got a 500 gig that won't show up in Windows XP. Help! So I bought this 500 gig IDE drive. I'm using Windows XP SP2. I installed it in my box. My BIOS sees it. Windows doesn't. In Disk Manager, I see it as a 128 gig drive, but it still doesn't appear in Explorer (even if it did, I want those other 372 other gigs dammit). I tried using this firmware update via floppy for my hard drive controller (promise ide ultra100 tx2), but booting it up yielded a split screen: half was the menu, half was blackness.

So uh. wtf? I've scoured google and found people with similar problems, especially people with SATA drives. But that's not what I've got, so. Could anybody lend me some pearls of wisdom? I'm pretty sure it's not a loose ribbon.

AHCI gives me a headache...

lou — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:14:59 -0800

Hard Drive Filter: Someone explain to me how SATA and AHCI work. I got some new computer parts. I've been building my own systems for nearly eight years now and it's the best way for me to learn the in's and out's of my system. This is the first time I've had an SATA capable motherboard and an SATA hard drive, and so far it's been nothing but headaches. I *suspect* a lot of the headaches has to do with the fact that I do *not* want to do a fresh install of my operating system (although, if that is all that is needed to take away all my headaches, please confirm). I'm on a copy of WinXP from university a few years back -- not quite sure about all the legal ramifications of using still using their OS, but I'm not interested in that discussion right now. However -- just in case Microsoft disables my computer remotely or whatever is up their sleeves -- I disabled Automatic Updates and don't have Service Pack 1 or 2. That might also make a difference. So. Onto the questions.

1. My new motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (that's this one). If you look on their drivers list, there's a section for SATA RAID drivers, an Intel one for their Northbridge controller and a GSATA one for a second controller (by JMicron?). As I understand it I need to install these drivers for WinXP to recognize SATA drives. Do these drivers work for *ALL* SATA modes, even if it's specifically labeled as RAID? (I'm not looking for a RAID setup.) It looks like I need to install these drivers even if I want to just use the SATA controller in IDE mode -- is this true?

2. I'd like to enable AHCI to make the most of my SATA drives. So far, I know that I'm supposed to do a repair install of WinXP, load up the RAID driver (even if I don't want RAID), and then change the BIOS setting to make the hard drive work in AHCI mode. So I tried that on the GSATA controller and I got WinXP to boot-- huzzah! BUT -- the drives on the IDE controller disappeared! I only see my SATA hard drive, and not my IDE hard drive and CD-DVD drive which is on the IDE controller. Are AHCI and IDE mutually exclusive or incompatible? If a system is on AHCI is IDE disabled? If so, why doesn't this warning exist anywhere? Or did I do something wrong?

3. Do I need to load the SATA drivers *everytime* I do a repair install? Would I be able to install two drivers, one for each controller, on a single install?

Computer upgrade options

Elpoca — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:25:43 -0800

I'd like to upgrade my 4 year old Dell Dimension 8200 computer, while hopefully getting components that I could use later, should I decide to build a whole new system in a few months. Sadly, I know nearly nothing about computer hardware. The system specifications (from the Dell support site) are:

3K363 PROCESSOR, 80531, 1.8G, 0, 400FSB, SOCKET N, D0
8G894 ASSEMBLY, CARD (CIRCUIT), PLANAR (MOTHERBOARD), DIM8200, NO-RSR
4T234 RAMBUS INLINE MEMORY MODULE, 128, 400M, 64X16, 4C, 40
9578D CARD (CIRCUIT), MEMORY BOARD, MEMORY, PRINTED WIRING BOARD, CONTINUITY, RAMBUS

Despite what (I think) is shown above, my system has 256MB of memory, but I'd still like to get more. Unfortunately, from what I can ascertain, my system takes RDRAM, and cheap memory of this type doesn't seem to exist. Am I mistaken in my system's memory type? Or, does cheap RDRAM exist? Could another type of memory be used instead?

I'm also thinking about getting a larger hard drive. I've read that SATA hard drives are better. Is this true? Can my system connect to a SATA drive? Or, if not, if I get an IDE drive, will it still be able to connect to motherboards in a couple years?

Finally, and if necessary, is it possible to replace the motherboard and processor in my computer? I've heard that with Dells, replacing major hardware components is not always possible.

Basically, I'm trying to cheaply upgrade my system now (while I'm poor), while getting components that I can use later in a new system (when I'm less poor). Is this possible, or am I stuck with what I've got?

I've googled for answers to these questions but I'm still unclear on many things. I'd appreciate some expert opinions!