my PC is slower

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
  • Start date Start date
T

Talal Itani

A few days ago, I added a and old slow disk drive to my XP PC, for backups.
Since then I noticed that my PC is slower, and I can hear that old drive
crunching. Is it my imagination? Is XP now using this drive for things?
Thanks.

Talal Itani
 
That old drive could be dropping you down to a lower DMA mode or worse PIO
mode.
See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472/en-us

Part of this article covers a method for checking the current mode:
Start/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/System Tools/Device Manager
Check the IDE primary channel properties. It should be Ultra DMA 5 or 6 and
NOT PIO mode.

JS
 
JS said:
That old drive could be dropping you down to a lower DMA mode or worse PIO
mode.
See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472/en-us

Part of this article covers a method for checking the current mode:
Start/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/System Tools/Device Manager
Check the IDE primary channel properties. It should be Ultra DMA 5 or 6
and NOT PIO mode.

JS
Click to expand...

I just checked. It is DMA5.
 
Talal Itani said:
A few days ago, I added a and old slow disk drive to my XP PC, for
backups. Since then I noticed that my PC is slower, and I can hear that
old drive crunching. Is it my imagination? Is XP now using this drive
for things? Thanks.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...

The old standby of cleaning the disk of redundant files (Cleanup!
www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/ is better than the Windows offering)
and a defrag will bring it up to the best possible (albeit slow) speed.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions
 
Back
Top