Enabling SATA mode on SATA drives in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Yousuf Khan
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Yousuf Khan

Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode
through the motherboard. The SATA drives appear under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers" section of Device Manager. All SATA drives appear to be
running in UDMA Mode 6 (ATA/133) at present. Question is will there be
any noticeable difference in performance if I switch them into SATA
mode? Second question, is it worth bothering under XP, when the drives
may fail to boot if any change is made?

Yousuf Khan
 
Yousuf said:
Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode through the motherboard. The SATA drives appear
under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section of Device Manager. All SATA drives appear to be running in UDMA Mode 6
(ATA/133) at present. Question is will there be any noticeable difference in performance if I switch them into SATA
mode?
Nope.

Second question, is it worth bothering under XP,
Nope.

when the drives may fail to boot if any change is made?
Click to expand...

You can always change the mode back if that happens.
 
Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode
through the motherboard. The SATA drives appear under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers" section of Device Manager. All SATA drives appear to be
running in UDMA Mode 6 (ATA/133) at present. Question is will there be
any noticeable difference in performance if I switch them into SATA
mode? Second question, is it worth bothering under XP, when the drives
may fail to boot if any change is made?
Click to expand...

There will be no performance difference, and the OS *will* fail to boot.

Switching from IDE emulation to AHCI is a pain in Windows. The only real
reason to do it is to enable an eSATA port to work properly.
 
Mike said:
Switching from IDE emulation to AHCI is a pain in Windows. The only real
reason to do it is to enable an eSATA port to work properly.
Click to expand...

You mean for hot plugging support?

Yousuf Khan
 
Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode
through the motherboard. The SATA drives appear under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers" section of Device Manager. All SATA drives appear to be
running in UDMA Mode 6 (ATA/133) at present. Question is will there be
any noticeable difference in performance if I switch them into SATA
mode? Second question, is it worth bothering under XP, when the drives
may fail to boot if any change is made?

Yousuf Khan
Click to expand...


On a new system with XP pro installed, my SATA drives were unbelievably slow
in IDE mode - a 1 gig file copy between 2 (real) hard drives took over a
minute, maybe 2. Also AHCI mode will allow NCQ to be turned on which speeds
up random file access and increases drive reliability (less drive head
movements).

AHCI mode is worth the effort to enable IMO, however you will need to either
install the AHCI drivers at XP installation time using F6 or slipstream the
AHCI drivers in an XP CD which is not exactly easy as pie.
 
Hg said:
On a new system with XP pro installed, my SATA drives were unbelievably slow
in IDE mode - a 1 gig file copy between 2 (real) hard drives took over a
minute, maybe 2. Also AHCI mode will allow NCQ to be turned on which speeds
up random file access and increases drive reliability (less drive head
movements).

AHCI mode is worth the effort to enable IMO, however you will need to either
install the AHCI drivers at XP installation time using F6 or slipstream the
AHCI drivers in an XP CD which is not exactly easy as pie.
Click to expand...

So you're suggesting it is worth the effort for a new installation, but
what about for an existing installation?

Yousuf Khan
 
Yousuf said:
Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode
through the motherboard. The SATA drives appear under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers" section of Device Manager. All SATA drives appear to be
running in UDMA Mode 6 (ATA/133) at present. Question is will there be
any noticeable difference in performance if I switch them into SATA
mode? Second question, is it worth bothering under XP, when the drives
may fail to boot if any change is made?
Click to expand...


Another question, if I were to enable the AHCI/SATA drivers, I'd have to
go into my BIOS and turn on Nvidia RAID support, but disable each
individual drive as belonging to a RAID set, right?

Yousuf Khan
 
So you're suggesting it is worth the effort for a new installation, but
what about for an existing installation?
Click to expand...

I have XP running with AHCI. I am not sure what I did, but I think
I just installed the controller drivers while still in IDE mode.
If I remember correctly, then installing with IDE and then upgrading
to AHCI is possible.

Arno
 
On Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:13:55 -0500, Yousuf Khan

:>Hg wrote:
:>> On a new system with XP pro installed, my SATA drives were unbelievably slow
:>> in IDE mode - a 1 gig file copy between 2 (real) hard drives took over a
:>> minute, maybe 2. Also AHCI mode will allow NCQ to be turned on which speeds
:>> up random file access and increases drive reliability (less drive head
:>> movements).
:>>
:>> AHCI mode is worth the effort to enable IMO, however you will need to either
:>> install the AHCI drivers at XP installation time using F6 or slipstream the
:>> AHCI drivers in an XP CD which is not exactly easy as pie.
:>
:>So you're suggesting it is worth the effort for a new installation, but
:>what about for an existing installation?
:>
:> Yousuf Khan

Thsi worked for me a few weeks ago on an existing XP installation
without having to reinstall the o/s.

http://blog.mytwocents.it/?p=11

me/2
 
You mean for hot plugging support?
Click to expand...

More like hot unplugging. You will be able to attach a drive easily enough,
but Windows will not give you the means to safely remove it without data loss.
 
Looks like I'm currently using my SATA drives in IDE emulation mode
Nope.
Click to expand...
Does this means that a SATA disk under XP is no different from a PATA disk?
Are there any significant increase in the transfer rates? SATA claims a
pretty high rates, so will this be apperent in a XP based system?
Nope.
Click to expand...
What operating system can provide the claimed speed? Changing the
motherboard settings to accomodate SATA as it is and reinstalling a copy of
"Vista" will help?

Regards,
Abhinav
 
Abhinav Nishant wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Click to expand...
Does this means that a SATA disk under XP is no different from a PATA disk?
Click to expand...

Performance wise, yes.
Are there any significant increase in the transfer rates?
Click to expand...

Nope, thats determined by the physical detail of the drive, sectors per track and rotation rate.
SATA claims a pretty high rates,
Click to expand...

That is just the rate over the cable, thats always much higher than
what the drive can physically do. What the drive can physically do
is determined by the rate the sectors move under the heads, and
so the rotation rate and sectors per track.
so will this be apperent in a XP based system?
Click to expand...

It isnt seen on any system.
What operating system can provide the claimed speed?
Click to expand...

None, zero, nada, ziltch.
Changing the motherboard settings to accomodate SATA as it is and reinstalling a copy of "Vista" will help?
Click to expand...

Nope.
 
That is just the rate over the cable, thats always much higher than
what the drive can physically do. What the drive can physically do
is determined by the rate the sectors move under the heads, and
so the rotation rate and sectors per track.
Click to expand...

Any advantage of using a SATA disk?
 
Abhinav Nishant wrote
Any advantage of using a SATA disk?
Click to expand...

Likely to be more useful in a future system. Plenty of current
motherboards only have a couple of PATA ports now and
you normally want to use those for DVD drives.
 
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