Admittedly not smart about this....
I installed a pair of SATA drives on my system but didn't load the SATA drivers during installation. Now, as I'm finding out, I'm apparently running in IDE mode. What exactly does this all mean? From what I understand, if I want true SATA performance I will need to reinstall WinXP Pro and load the SATA drivers during installation. What can I expect to gain from this? Anything significant or is it not worth the effort?
And if it is worth the effort, what other potential stumbling blocks or landmines wmight I encounter or look out for?
Thanks!
SATA vs IDE
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Counterparts
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Re: SATA vs IDE
Typically, there's a BIOS setting which you can use to switch 'SATA Modes'.krizrox wrote:Admittedly not smart about this....
I installed a pair of SATA drives on my system but didn't load the SATA drivers during installation. Now, as I'm finding out, I'm apparently running in IDE mode. What exactly does this all mean?
These modes are usually, "SATA" and "IDE".
In IDE mode, the SATA drives appear on (additional) IDE channels. Your MOBO probably has two dedicated 'proper' IDE channels, and the (e.g.) two SATA channels will likely appear as IDE channels 2 & 3 (numbering starts at 0).
If you want to you the SATA drives in true 'SATA' mode, you need to hit F6 at the appropriate time during the OS installation and insert the floppy disk containing the (3rd party) SATA drivers. The BIOS will also need to be correctly configured at this point. Then the Windows installer will be able to see the drives and install Windows on them.
You could try switching the mode in the BIOS and see if that works, I'm not 100% sure about that though.
HTH,
Royston
The only options in BIOS (on my Intel mobo) are IDE or AHCI. If I try to select AHCI, I get a message indicating that option is for Windows Vista only. I am using WinXP Pro. So my choice seems limited to IDE in BIOS.
Now, I just tried an experiment. I downloaded some SATA driver files from the Intel website and saved them to a floppy disc. Ran the WinXP install and seletced F6 at startup. WinXP presented me with the appropriate options, and went ahead with the install. But according to the readme file that came with this floppy utility, I should be able to confirm the presence of a RAID controller in the Windows Control Panel (under hardware options). I don't see any RAID controller option. Just the usual IDE controller option. Either I did something wrong during install, not the right drivers, or.... what?
Could it be my mobo does all this configuration automatically and there is nothing further to do other than to install WinXP Pro (SP2) like usual?
I have an Intel DG965RY mobo. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome
Now, I just tried an experiment. I downloaded some SATA driver files from the Intel website and saved them to a floppy disc. Ran the WinXP install and seletced F6 at startup. WinXP presented me with the appropriate options, and went ahead with the install. But according to the readme file that came with this floppy utility, I should be able to confirm the presence of a RAID controller in the Windows Control Panel (under hardware options). I don't see any RAID controller option. Just the usual IDE controller option. Either I did something wrong during install, not the right drivers, or.... what?
Could it be my mobo does all this configuration automatically and there is nothing further to do other than to install WinXP Pro (SP2) like usual?
I have an Intel DG965RY mobo. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome
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Counterparts
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Configuring the RAID array is usually done through a utility which you can invoke just after you can get access to the BIOS (i.e. at start-up before Windows starts booting).
As far as I'm aware, the BIOS should give you the option of switching the SATA channels between SATA or IDE mode. I can't see the point in having SATA channels on a MOBO if they can only operate as IDE ones.
As far as I'm aware, the BIOS should give you the option of switching the SATA channels between SATA or IDE mode. I can't see the point in having SATA channels on a MOBO if they can only operate as IDE ones.
There's something funny about the way Intel designed this mobo: I found this:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware ... 04450.html
If I'm reading this right, AHCI only works for Windows Vista and not Windows XP. I admit to not being too clear about this but it appears I am stuck in IDE mode unless I want to upgrade to Vista. If anyone with the same mobo around here has anything to offer on this, I'd appreciate it.
Going back to square one for a second, let's assume I'm stuck in IDE mode. How bad is that really? Is that cause for concern in regards to DAW work? I mean, I've been using IDE drives for years. What particular benefit is there in SATA mode anyway? Greater throughput? If I never had an issue with IDE drives, why would I care if I'm in SATA mode? Or is there an issue with a SATA drive operating in IDE mode?
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware ... 04450.html
If I'm reading this right, AHCI only works for Windows Vista and not Windows XP. I admit to not being too clear about this but it appears I am stuck in IDE mode unless I want to upgrade to Vista. If anyone with the same mobo around here has anything to offer on this, I'd appreciate it.
Going back to square one for a second, let's assume I'm stuck in IDE mode. How bad is that really? Is that cause for concern in regards to DAW work? I mean, I've been using IDE drives for years. What particular benefit is there in SATA mode anyway? Greater throughput? If I never had an issue with IDE drives, why would I care if I'm in SATA mode? Or is there an issue with a SATA drive operating in IDE mode?
it's ide mode or raid.
leave it as it is. do you have any question marks or exclamation points in the device manager? if not, then you aren't likely missing drivers. you did install the motherboard drivers(from the cd that came with the motherboard) immediately upon completeing the windows installation, no? if not, do it now. how's your track count? that's the only "benefit" of any mode, being able to transfer the data. you should be seeing the rewards from the large cache and high speed of the new drives already.
as far as ahci, i think it's the 64bit protocol. ide is the 32bit protocol. hence, ahci is only for vista.
leave it as it is. do you have any question marks or exclamation points in the device manager? if not, then you aren't likely missing drivers. you did install the motherboard drivers(from the cd that came with the motherboard) immediately upon completeing the windows installation, no? if not, do it now. how's your track count? that's the only "benefit" of any mode, being able to transfer the data. you should be seeing the rewards from the large cache and high speed of the new drives already.
as far as ahci, i think it's the 64bit protocol. ide is the 32bit protocol. hence, ahci is only for vista.
No obvious problems except the instability with Sonar which I think I have solved (although I'm still not sure about that either). And I did install all the chipset drivers from the mobo disc after XP was finished instialling itself.
This issue of SATA performance came up and I wasn't sure if I had installed the drvies/XP correctly. Apparently everything is as it should be for this combination. Thanks!
PS: track count is as high as always. I was always able to do upwards of 100+ tracks even with my old P4. I'm not sure this particular hardware upgrade gained me a whole lot. I didn't notice like this huge night and day difference in speed or performance. But I guess it's good to know I'm set for whatever the future holds. The best upgrade was Scope Pro. That one thing alone was the best thing I did for myself.
This issue of SATA performance came up and I wasn't sure if I had installed the drvies/XP correctly. Apparently everything is as it should be for this combination. Thanks!
PS: track count is as high as always. I was always able to do upwards of 100+ tracks even with my old P4. I'm not sure this particular hardware upgrade gained me a whole lot. I didn't notice like this huge night and day difference in speed or performance. But I guess it's good to know I'm set for whatever the future holds. The best upgrade was Scope Pro. That one thing alone was the best thing I did for myself.
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Counterparts
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Have a look in the contents of your CD that came with the mobo. Something like STOR_ALLOS_xxx.exe and, most important STOR_F6FLPYxxx.exe. The last one is the floppy image you'll need. If you have it, you can use AHCI. It means that you could hot swap your drive, if the drive can do so (most can). And you could have a RAID. It's only about advanced features of the controller, you can switch it from nomal mode to more advanced features. That's all.
But for your specific board it does'nt look good. Seems to be no support. Seems they have added more features in their latest bios and they find it too much hassle or it's impossible to implement for XP. So they say Vista only.
It works with a DQ965CO. So I now can hot swap, if this &%$:! drive cage would let me do it.
And RAID, I never used it for my DAW. Too much of a waste: all drives are doubled and when, say in 4 years, a drive crashes: Then I go and cannot get such a then model from yesteryear drive. So I buy two new ones and fill in my backup? No, thanks.
So don't worry, as garyb said, the speed comes with the drives. And SATA is ATA and PATA is ATA, they only use different cables for the same performance. And the good thing is that you can use the smaller SATA cables for better fan-ing of your box. So anyway, you won.
But for your specific board it does'nt look good. Seems to be no support. Seems they have added more features in their latest bios and they find it too much hassle or it's impossible to implement for XP. So they say Vista only.
It works with a DQ965CO. So I now can hot swap, if this &%$:! drive cage would let me do it.
And RAID, I never used it for my DAW. Too much of a waste: all drives are doubled and when, say in 4 years, a drive crashes: Then I go and cannot get such a then model from yesteryear drive. So I buy two new ones and fill in my backup? No, thanks.
So don't worry, as garyb said, the speed comes with the drives. And SATA is ATA and PATA is ATA, they only use different cables for the same performance. And the good thing is that you can use the smaller SATA cables for better fan-ing of your box. So anyway, you won.
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Counterparts
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The main difference is that SATA is a serial-attached ATA bus, and IDE is a parallel ATA bus. Because you don't have the complications of synching up a parallel bus, SATA is potentially faster.
Ditto for PICe (express, NOT PCI-X) compared to PCI; it's a serial bus and so can be run much faster, giving greater bandwidth.
Ditto for PICe (express, NOT PCI-X) compared to PCI; it's a serial bus and so can be run much faster, giving greater bandwidth.