Need thoughts/insights... (This one's hard, so serious hardware guys only please)

[Bires]

I've been struggling with this Maxtor diamondmax 10 SATA drive for almost two weeks now. I really need to know if it's running the way it's supposed to.

Facts:
It's displayed as ATA100 in the bios when detected on three boards: 865, 875, and 915.

Sandra says it's running at UDMA5, and its max is UDMA6 (not UDMA-x for sata?)

It cannot finish Sandra's file system benchmark.

HD Tach says its burst rate is 133MB/s

HD Tach says its average read is 48.1 MB/s

I'm writing this while using the drive as my only drive.

So...since it gets the same results on three mobos, I'm inclined to think something's wrong with the drive, but Powermax (from maxtor) can't find anything wrong with it, which leaves the bios of my Abit IS7. I can't find anything to set ATA mode, just disabled and auto.

So...there we go. I'm kinda frustrated with this.

Thoughts?

Insights?

Is it fine (and not very fast) and bios is lying to me?

[TruckStuff]

Need thoughts/insights... (This one's hard, so serious hardware guys only please)Then why are you posting this in the software/OS category? :rolleyes:

At any rate, what kind of cable are you using to connect the drive? Is it wide and flat or skinny and round?

[Grimm]

ALso, what are the controlers you are using on the motherboards?

[Bires]

Then why are you posting this in the software/OS category? :rolleyes:

At any rate, what kind of cable are you using to connect the drive? Is it wide and flat or skinny and round?

You need a cable to connect hard drives? My cable is kinda spiral, loopy, like a telephone cord....



IT'S A FRIGGIN SERIAL ATA CABLE! GOSH!

(sigh)...serious hardware guys...


ALso, what are the controlers you are using on the motherboards?

Chipset=Intel 82801EB.


Then why are you posting this in the software/OS category? :rolleyes:

I was hoping it was a Windows/Sandra (maybe bios) issue. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[AlpineJay]

I don't have any good ideas off the top of my head, but I can help because I'm buying the drive (it's the 16MB cache one, ATA150, and NCQ enabled, right?) and will be puttig it on my A8V-Deluxe board. It has a Promise SATA controller that I most likely will use.

I'll report back and see what I find.

[shocky123]

I would suggest you find a good disk-utility to test the drive. This sounds to me like you might have a bad(not as good as advertised) drive.
UltimateBoot-CD, or try using whatever Maxtor's Disc-Utility is. You'll probably have to burn your utility to a cd, and boot your computer from cd to do this.

Do some tests with those and see if the disc has any immediate errors/issues. If there is any physical problem with the drive, it should be easily found via one of these tests/utilities.

If this ends up showing that there's nothing immediately wrong with the disk then you're kinda out of luck, and the problem either lies with the onboard SATA chipset/interface .... or... your computer cannot handle it :disa:

Hope that helps..
If it's any help... discs very rarely ever achieve their full(advertised) speeds. Even when using brand new discs out of the box I've found that the majority of them perform within 90% of their suggested speed. But I've had dozens that ran about 50% of the speed they should've, those I've simply RMA'd and replaced. If it's broken out of the box, send it back, it'll never get any better.

good luck,
~Kyle

[Bires]

I'll report back and see what I find.

I'm looking forward to it.


I would suggest you find a good disk-utility to test the drive....

Maxtor's Powermax cannot find anything wrong with the drive, and the drive bursts at 133MB/sec (UDMA6 speed), so it's possible that the bios is lying to me.

[Grimm]

I'm stumped. I can't find anything about it. As a WAG I would say a bad bit in the FW causing the drive to be misidentified.

If you can't figure it out I would ask DavidHammok200 on forums.extremeoverclocking.com

[AlpineJay]

just got the drive today. if there's time tomorrow i'll look to put it in and report. otherwise it'll have to wait until sat. afternoon.

[doolittle]

ALso, what are the controlers you are using on the motherboards?


:stupid:
if you dont have a 133 controller it will run at 100

[Bires]

if you dont have a 133 controller it will run at 100
even when the drive is Serial ATA (150)?


just got the drive today. if there's time tomorrow i'll look to put it in and report. otherwise it'll have to wait until sat. afternoon.


I wait with baited breath. :)

Also, please post your HDtach scores.

[AlpineJay]

HDTach?

[doolittle]

if you want that drive to run at 150 youll need a 150 controller to match it, most motherboards ive seen have 100 and 133 controlers on the board, some of the newer ones may support 150, or youll have to get a pci controller or somthing. look at your motherboard manual for the controller specs.

[AlpineJay]

if you want that drive to run at 150 youll need a 150 controller to match it, most motherboards ive seen have 100 and 133 controlers on the board, some of the newer ones may support 150, or youll have to get a pci controller or somthing. look at your motherboard manual for the controller specs.

I think you're talking about IDE/ATA. SATA is 150 or higher (for the newest mobos) by default.

[Bires]

HDTach?
HDTach (http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach).

[AlpineJay]

ughhhhh! Drive is DOA. Called newegg today to crossship the drive.

Bires, just curious - does your drive have NCQ? I noticed today on the website that Maxtor makes the same drive without NCQ for about ten dollars cheaper.

[Bires]

ughhhhh! Drive is DOA.
POOP!




Bires, just curious - does your drive have NCQ? I noticed today on the website that Maxtor makes the same drive without NCQ for about ten dollars cheaper

Ya. It is. I read a lot of reviews about Native Command Queing, and nearly all of them found that when using an ordinary desktop, it's slower, and in games (reading large files), it's MUCH slower. Seems the performance gains are only a reality in a server environment.