SATA drives stuck on PIO mode

Deucalion · 10-12-2008, 02:43 PM

Hi all

I've got 2 x Samsung 500Gb Sata II drives installed in my PC but both are showing with PIO transfer mode (despite the setting being DMA if available) which is causing me no end of frustration whenever transferring to and from.

When I check my device manager it shows me having 2 x primary and secondary IDE controllers with only the 2nd of each entry relating to the actual drives.

My Motherboard is an ABIT AN-M2HD and I have also tried to aks them for help but not even an acknowledgement to my question.

I've taken a look over the BIOS settings but don't understand enough of the technicalities to be brave enough to change anything.

Any suggestions on how to get these drives to DMA from anyone would be very gratefully received.

**Lead3** · 10-12-2008, 08:50 PM

Hi,
Welcome to TSF. Where are they showing PIO? For SATA drives PIO or DMA is meaningless. These are operations for ATA drives only. Sata is a serial interface that either operates at SATA I or II speeds and always DMA. What problem are you having.

Paul

Deucalion · 10-13-2008, 01:27 PM

Hi Paul

Thanks for the welcome

As I've always said a little of knowledge is sometimes very dangerous :-)

The problem is all to do with transfer rates - whenever I try to write to or from either of the two drives it takes an age.

**Lead3** · 10-13-2008, 02:06 PM

Download this free benchmark tool for hard drives HDTach. It will let you see what your performance is. By the way, where does it show your drives as PIO?

Paul

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public...request=HdTach

10-12-2008, 02:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
Deucalion Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 2 OS: XP	SATA drives stuck on PIO mode Hi all I've got 2 x Samsung 500Gb Sata II drives installed in my PC but both are showing with PIO transfer mode (despite the setting being DMA if available) which is causing me no end of frustration whenever transferring to and from. When I check my device manager it shows me having 2 x primary and secondary IDE controllers with only the 2nd of each entry relating to the actual drives. My Motherboard is an ABIT AN-M2HD and I have also tried to aks them for help but not even an acknowledgement to my question. I've taken a look over the BIOS settings but don't understand enough of the technicalities to be brave enough to change anything. Any suggestions on how to get these drives to DMA from anyone would be very gratefully received.

10-12-2008, 08:50 PM	#2 (permalink)
Lead3 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 1,378 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP2 x64 & x86, Windows 7 x64 & x86 My System	Re: SATA drives stuck on PIO mode Hi, Welcome to TSF. Where are they showing PIO? For SATA drives PIO or DMA is meaningless. These are operations for ATA drives only. Sata is a serial interface that either operates at SATA I or II speeds and always DMA. What problem are you having. Paul __________________ Last edited by Lead3; 10-12-2008 at 08:57 PM.

10-13-2008, 01:27 PM	#3 (permalink)
Deucalion Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Re: SATA drives stuck on PIO mode Hi Paul Thanks for the welcome As I've always said a little of knowledge is sometimes very dangerous :-) The problem is all to do with transfer rates - whenever I try to write to or from either of the two drives it takes an age.

10-13-2008, 02:06 PM	#4 (permalink)
Lead3 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 1,378 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP2 x64 & x86, Windows 7 x64 & x86 My System	Re: SATA drives stuck on PIO mode Download this free benchmark tool for hard drives HDTach. It will let you see what your performance is. By the way, where does it show your drives as PIO? Paul http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public...request=HdTach __________________