Hi there!
Happy New Year!

I have 2 SATA drives:

Barracuda 7200.7 + Raptor 74 Gb
on a MSI 865PE Neo 2 mobo (non FISR)
and after a clean install of Windows XP
+ SP2 I cannot find a way to have them
operate in U-DMA mode 6 (Currently in
U-DMA 5).

Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced
my mobo drivers and the Live-Update
utility dowloadable from the MSI website
can't help me. I could not get any help from
the mainboard manual either, and solutions
for other chipsets do not apply to mine, as far
as I can tell.

Is there a way to make them work in mode
6 without having to order a new driver CD?

Is there no way to get true SATA150 with SATA
disks, or at least "true" SATA disks, like the
Seagate?

Thank you

You do not need any software disk from your manufacturer All you need is just install Intel Chipset Installation Utility:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df...al&submit=Go%21

Chipset on your mobo is Intel 865 which supports UDMA100 only (like all Intel chipsets) so there is no way no set it higher. I also have Seagare SATA disk and AFAIK Seagate also supports Udma100 mode...

I already have these drivers installed via Live-Update.
Still mode 5.



The Seagate used to operate in mode 6
when it was my system drive. Thus ATA133
is possible with my chipset. If only I could get
it back. Besides the speed, I miss the more
efficient interrupt handling, e.g. no freezing
when disconnecting with a dial-up modem.

Did you connect your drives to standard Intel controller (this included in ICH5) or to other build in your mobo? Because ICH5's controller supports only UDMA100...

I am under the impression that both drives are connected
to the ICH5 controller, but again, as edited above
the Seagate did work as ATA133 (mode 6) before...

Problem (kinda) fixed...

After clearing NVRAM in BIOS, both drives
now operate in mode 6 (got absolutely no idea why
this did the trick).

However:

My internal Crypto (/Lucent/Agere) 56K modem still causes
freezing when (dis)connecting. Guess hard drive DMA mode
has nothing to do with it. Weird, 'cos with my USB modem,
using the Seagate as system drive (udma-6), I had no probs
with modem interrupts whatsoever, while the same USB modem
did cause freezing with an older 20Gb non-SATA Maxtor drive.

Anyway, thanx u for your posts WILU!

I believe this is true only for Ultra ATA. Serial ATA runs at 150 MB/s, and SATA-unaware operating systems should be able to recognize it as ATA/ATAPI-7. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's true, it either runs at 150 MB/s or it doesn't run at all. There are no lower modes in SATA. So whatever your BIOS is displaying for ATA modes does not affect SATA.

My BIOS does not allow for UDMA mode selection,
it uses more obscure terms. I found out that true
SATA150 is possible only with the RAID controller
installed on the FISR flavour of my motherboard.

Unless I am mistaken, when connected to a ICH5
controller, the drive emulates ATA133. I wish I had
dished out some more cash for the FISR...

Anyway, at least I've got ATA133 now which isn't too
bad.

If I can figure out the "short freezing when dialing" issue
with my modem, I'll be quite happy

I think it may just be due to some system latency or timing issue.

When I turn my latency down for SATA Drive to sound card audio input -- I get audio skips when accessing certain hard drive folders or content with lots of stuff.

Nothing to worry about.

Then again, I could easily fix my issues by turning the latency up *Smile*

So, good luck with finding a solution to your issue, My good friend.

I also have pretty close to the same Config as you!!

A seagate 7200.7 200gb drive on my silicon image 3112 or whatever it is integrated on NFORCE 2 ultra board.

as well as a 36 gb Western digital raptor drive 10,000 RPM sata as primary

Fucking unbeliveable quality harddrives! I hope for them to last as long and as fast as t hey currently seem to preform.

Yeah, I'm also quite impressed, although I don't have anything to compare
them with except for my old Maxtor (which has also served me well).



Dunno, I wish I knew what was different with my setup back when modem
and other hardware interrupts did not affect system behaviour....

Btw, for some reason my modem speaker is heard through my normal
speakers ever since I upgraded the modem drivers... Weird!



Thanx amigo!

It will under Linux, with the SI311x. Don't know about Windows (or ICH5, or Marvell's controller), but it will get slow PIO, and burst rates below max (ATA-2, 66MB/s, ~50MB/s burst for 120GB 'Cudas) with the standard driver RHEL3 and Debian (testing) driver. The drive might be technically using the faster signal and all, but not necessarily the full SATA speed (which on newer drives, should give 70+MB/s bursts and 50-70MB/s sustained).

Promise treated the drives, however, as SCSI devices.