A computer/hard drive question....

[vi5]

My computer came with a 40 gb hard drive inside. Previously my big storage need was music since I have about 1,900 albums worth of music to store digitally. I had been using a 120 gb external hard drive connected through high speed USB.

I recently got some video editing software and have been converting video to digital files.

So I figured an internal secondary drive patched right into the computer would be better than an external one. So I took the plunge and installed it myself and it's working fine. Now here's the weird part. When I transfered a large batch of files from my one internal drive to the new secondary internal drive, it took about 20 minutes to copy the files. When I transfered the same amount to the external USB drive it took 2 minutes. When I play the same video file from the main internal drive and then the external drive, they both play smooth and flawless. When I play that same file from the internal secondary drive it is jerky and broken up.

What gives? Is this a memory issue? Is it because the secondary internal drive is draining more of the RAM?

Any explanation anyone could think of?

[Lithos]

1. Buffering?

IDE has problems with buffering.

Maybe an IRQ or DMA issue?

L-

[vi5]

2. Hmm....

I don't know what any of those things mean. :(

[Lithos]

7. Actually I suspect

You are configured for PIO mode (more CPU drive) on your second drive and DMA on your first.

Try here:

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=home&src=TCDhdtach.htm

If you see a high CPU usage on your second drive, you are probably PIO

[vi5]

8. PIO? CPU? No idea what any of this means.

What should I have gone to at that link?

[St. Jarvitude]

4. Definitely sounds like a DMA issue

I've forgotten completely how to do low-level stuff like that in Windows, though...

(GNU/Linux user for 3 years now)

[vi5]

6. What does DMA mean?

[St. Jarvitude]

15. I'm very bad at explaining technical things

But here's the Wikipedia article. If you need clarification, I might be able to help...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access

Essentially, it allows for rapid transfer of data from one part of your computer to another - for example from one hard drive to another, or from your Firewire video camera to your hard drive, etc. etc. - without subjecting your processor to intense load.

If DMA is not enabled... well, you'll experience very poor performance when dealing with large files on a hard drive.

[vi5]

17. Thank you, that helped.

[mike_c]

3. something is not kosher....

I don't know if having the jumpers set wrong or using the wrong cable positions with cable-select can cause some thing like this, or maybe a loose connection (?) but your secondary drive should not be doing that. One thing could might try would be to make the secondary drive your primary (and only) drive, install an opperating system on it and boot it, or just boot Gnoppix Linux on LiveCD, and run some disk diagnostics on it. That's a pain, but it would tell you whether the disk is faulty (while it's still under warranty).

[vi5]

5. Thanks....

That may be more than I'm equipped to handle. But I'll check the cable/settings and such. The thing is, the drive is recognized, and it does save and store stuff o.k. It just seems to mover fairly slowly transferring. And the stuttering video problem only seems to be on some higher quality videos I rendered rather than the lower quality ones I did.

[sendero]

9. If you have...

... both of those drives connected to the same IDE bus, that is your problem. (If they are on the same cable, they are on the same bus).

[vi5]

10. So I should have them on separate cables?

You mean that wide, ribbon like cable?

I simply added the new drive to the Hard Drive 2 Plug on the existing cable that came with the comp.

Should I have hooked the second one up to the ribbon that came with it and just left the primary drive connector empty?

[sendero]

11. If you...

... are going to be copying lots of stuff from drive to drive, you will get better performance if you do.

Most computers have at least 2 IDE ports. Each port will support 2 drives. A lot of times, people will put their CD drive(s) on one and the disk drive(s) on the other.

Shuffle them around so that each hard drive is on a different cable and it should work better. Of course, the performance will ultimately depend on the drives and bus speed.

[vi5]

14. If I put the second one on it's own cable...

Would I leave the pin setting the same? Would I need to re-format and re-install? If I already have a cd drive and a dvd drive, does that mean my second IDE port is likely being used for those?

[sendero]

18. There should be ...

.... no formatting involved. The data on the drive will remain unaffected.

However, many/most drives have jumper settings for Master, Slave and Cable Select.

If there are two drives on a cable (port) one should be Master and the other Slave. This is usually easy to set, most drives have the info (jumper position) right on the label.

[vi5]

19. Yes, I have the pin settings set for slave on my secondary drive...

Which is what I want it to remain. Would I need to change that if it is on a different cable than the primary drive?

[sendero]

21. For each...

... cable, one drive should be Master and the other Slave. It really doesn't matter which is which, despite the nomenclature I don't think there is any real difference between how the master and slave operate or the speeds of their transfers.

If you have a CD and DVD on one port/cable/bus, one is Master and the other is Slave. Take the Slave off and put it on the cable the Slave hard drive is on now. And put the Slave hard drive on the cable the Slave CD was on.

That sounded complicated but it isn't. You have two drives (cd, dvd, disk) on each cable (port/bus) and on each cable one must be Master and the other Slave.

[vi5]

23. Thank you very much. You've been a big help...

So basically if I have 2 cables I can put anything I want on each one and it doesn't matter.

[sendero]

24. Exactly...

... and the concept to keep in mind here is that is you are asking to move a lot of data to/from BOTH DRIVES ON THE SAME CABLE (port/bus) you will hit a performance bottleneck because each port can only move so much data in a time period.

[RC]

12. You have two IDE sockets

And two IDE controlers. One goes to your boot hard drive. The other goes to your CD-rom drive. Connect the 2nd Hard drive to the same cable as the CD rom drive.

[Enraged_Ape]

13. Do you have the two drives on the same IDE bus?

You know, that big fat ribbon cable that connects your drives together.

As a rule, any drive that is used to copy from another drive should be on a separate IDE bus. For example, my computer has two IDE buses. One of them connects my internal hard drive and my CD-ROM. The other one has my DVD-RW and my Zip drive. That way th DVD-RW can buffer and copy away with no conflicts with the CD-ROM.

Check this out. If you don't have a second bus, or you've run out of connectors on the other one, you can get a PCI IDE card that will give you another one.

[vi5]

16. Thanks, it sounds like that is what it is...

My comp also has a cd-ROM, floppy drive, and dvd drive so I'm assuming that the second IDE port is already taken up.

WOuld I need to re-format the drive and reconfigure everything? Could I leave the pin settings on the second drive the same to indicate that it is a slave drive?

[Enraged_Ape]

22. Here's a web page that gives you the 411

http://www.basichardware.com/HowTo_Install_Hard_Drive.html

Keep in mind that both buses will have a master and (if there's something else on the bus) a slave. If you install the new drive to a bus that doesn't have a hard drive, you should set your new hard drive as master and any CD-ROM, etc., on the same bus as slave. The page I site has more detail on that.

Hope you get it all figured out. It can be a real challenge sometimes, particularly when your cables don't seem to be long enough. But it should work like a dream when you get it all worked out.

[B Calm]

20. Shouldn't take 20 minutes..

Right Click your drive ( under devices with removable storage )
Click Open
Click Select All
Click Edit
Click Copy
X out or close
Click My Computer
Right Click Local Disk (D) or if you only have one hard drive disc, click your disk
Left Click Explore
Click Make New Folder and give it a name
Open New Folder
Click Edit
Click Paste
Now the files should start loading onto this file