SATA 3.0Gb/s drive shows UDMA 0 instead of UDMA 6?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
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Tony

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152052
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Popped this drive into my system on an Asus A8N-E motherboard

Checking things out using EVEREST,

Seemed odd to have these stats show for the new drive.
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 6 (ATA-133)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 0

My other 3 drives (one ide, one 1.5Gb/s, and one 3.0Gb/s) shows the
correct UDMA modes and the active matches the max.

I only put this drive in my box yesterday and thought it seemed
somewhat slower than it should.. Seeing the above makes me feel less
like it was my imagination. could the sata cable I'm using have
something to do with it?

It's one of the below two Sata II cables, so it shouldn't be the
cable. (I say one of the two, because I also replaced an IDE cd burner
with a Sata yesterday and don't remember which cable I used with it
versus with the hard drive)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812123186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812123114


Any ideas? thoughts?

Thanks,

Tony!
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152052
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Popped this drive into my system on an Asus A8N-E motherboard

Checking things out using EVEREST,

Seemed odd to have these stats show for the new drive.
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 6 (ATA-133)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 0

My other 3 drives (one ide, one 1.5Gb/s, and one 3.0Gb/s) shows the
correct UDMA modes and the active matches the max.

I only put this drive in my box yesterday and thought it seemed
somewhat slower than it should.. Seeing the above makes me feel less
like it was my imagination. could the sata cable I'm using have
something to do with it?

It's one of the below two Sata II cables, so it shouldn't be the
cable. (I say one of the two, because I also replaced an IDE cd burner
with a Sata yesterday and don't remember which cable I used with it
versus with the hard drive)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812123186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812123114


Any ideas? thoughts?

Thanks,

Tony!
Click to expand...

Run a proper HDD benchmarks program to compare performance.
Try plugging this new drive into one of the other drive
positions then re-run the benchmarks.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what a generic
informational report type program like Everest reports, all
that really matters is if the drive remains online,
error-free (check Windows Event Viewer if it seems to drop
out) and that it benchmarks at the expected performance
level. Some things will reduce performance some, like if it
was running from a discrete 2nd SATA controller sitting on
the PCI bus, instead of through a southbridge chipset
controller. Some boards have this 2nd discrete controller
and some don't.
 
kony said:
Run a proper HDD benchmarks program to compare performance.
Try plugging this new drive into one of the other drive
positions then re-run the benchmarks.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what a generic
informational report type program like Everest reports, all
that really matters is if the drive remains online,
error-free (check Windows Event Viewer if it seems to drop
out) and that it benchmarks at the expected performance
level. Some things will reduce performance some, like if it
was running from a discrete 2nd SATA controller sitting on
the PCI bus, instead of through a southbridge chipset
controller. Some boards have this 2nd discrete controller
and some don't.
Click to expand...

If you need a hard drive benchmark, this one is free.
There are some restrictions on the OS this works with.

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

If you see a "sloped line" from left to right, that means your
performance is (properly) being limited by the media, the
rate that the head reads data from the disk. The data rate
is fastest at the beginning of the disk.

If the line is "perfectly flat", the transfer rate being seen,
is cable/interface limited. And that is something you should
strive to fix.

Once the "sloped line" shows up, it is ready to use.

Paul
 
Run a proper HDD benchmarks program to compare performance.
Try plugging this new drive into one of the other drive
positions then re-run the benchmarks.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what a generic
informational report type program like Everest reports, ...
Click to expand...

I can't see how any half decent utility could get this information
wrong. The UDMA capabilities and settings are contained within a 512
byte block of data that is retrieved via the Identify Drive command.

In Windows I use this utility:
http://ufpr.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/smartmontools/smartmontools-5.37-1.win32-setup.exe

This is the data block that is returned by my Seagate 13GB PATA HD:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/Smartctl/smart_debug.txt

The above debug report was produced by the following command line
(SATA drives require a slightly different set of switches):

smartctl -r ioctl,2 -a hda

Bytes 176 and 177 (041Fh) represent the UDMA info. According to page
56 of the following document, this value means that UDMA modes 0-4 are
supported, and UDMA mode 2 is active (I have an old socket 7 box).

Barracuda 7200RPM SATA Product Manual:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda 7200.10/100402371f.pdf
... all that really matters is if the drive remains online,
error-free (check Windows Event Viewer if it seems to drop
out) and that it benchmarks at the expected performance
level. Some things will reduce performance some, like if it
was running from a discrete 2nd SATA controller sitting on
the PCI bus, instead of through a southbridge chipset
controller. Some boards have this 2nd discrete controller
and some don't.
Click to expand...

- Franc Zabkar
 
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