OT: Win XP IDE Problem

Markus Schneider · Post by **Markus Schneider** » 28/04/2004 - 21:42

Hello folks out there !

My system worked since last week VERY slow. When loading all my samples into Giga I couldn't play/stream them via Sonar and I got pops/crackles. Even when loading just Winamp and playing an MP3 it turned out with same problem.

After a day of researching, fine tuning, preset changing like BIOS etc., new drivers and so on I found out that Windows XP automatically (without notifcation) downgrades the IDE standard from UDMA to PIO when you got more than 6 CRC errors. Bloody me didn't look into the mode, just recognized that Canopus Rextest (HDD speed test) showed up a slow OS hdd and a fast data HDD. So my OS hosting drive was extremely slow with 2MB instead of now 32MB.

Geeek ... that solution was to deinstall the IDE driver (takes some time) and then rebooting which XP asked for.

When the problem reoccurs it may be a problem of a faulty cable or HDD.

So if you ever will notice your XP slowed extremely down you know where to look first ...

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 28/04/2004 - 21:54

Sry 2 hear of ur issues Markus,

I looked at my swapfile... it was full, and i had no resources left.... edited my startup, cleared off data leaving 2 gig free then defragged.... damn but i got a massive boost in speed.

question .. did you have Smart turned on in bios ? It attempts to guess the life of your drive and work the drive accordingly.... I leave mine switched off, if its gonna go, its gonna go ! And i keep regular backups plus a ghost image of the original install + all the software i use. sao if it does go tits-up, i just slam in a new drive, format it and ghost the image file from cd.

I also run Roxio GO-BACK, - its the same kind of restore thing XP uses, cept it runs on startup and in DOS environment - that means if you shag windows, you can still step back an hour and try again....

Markus Schneider · Post by **Markus Schneider** » 28/04/2004 - 22:13

Well I keep backups from data after every serious change via DVD. The OS is backuped via Ghost every week. Anyway I do no like to recover an one week old OS due to eMail etc.

You can use the system restore like GO Back without using Windows. You need to use the repair function via WinXP CD

(did that some times and worked fine)

Well when you notice the time I spent in imaging/backing up it's very scary to see how much time it is. But better than a data loss

I made the experience that the SMART feature doesn't work very fine in 90%. You often get a message when it is too late. Further it slows down.

It does work as usual very good at the mo', so everything is fine and I can go on remixing since today

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 28/04/2004 - 23:41

Yeah the recover tool... it failed on me once, never used it since. Regular DVD backup is good though....