Problems with IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66.

Tim_K · Post by **Tim_K** » Tue May 10, 2005 9:08 am

I've been running my BP6 on the IDE1 port for about 4-1/2 months now. With a 40 conductor cable and a 6.4 GB 5400 rpm ST36421A hard drive ( Seagate ).

I found out that this hard drive supports ATA 66 speeds, and the IDE 1&2 ports are only for ATA 33 speeds.

So I went and got an 80 conductor cable and tried running the computer on the IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66 speeds. Didn't work. I kept getting the blue screen.

And 80 pin cables don't plug into the IDE 1&2 ports. One pin is blocked off.

Once I switched back to a 40 conductor cable in IDE 1 everything was fine.

So am I losing performance by staying on IDE1? How can I run the hard drive off of IDE 3 / 4? Or otherwise get ATA 66 speeds?

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Tue May 10, 2005 10:39 am

When using the 80-pin cable, make sure the blue connector is plugged into IDE3 or IDE4 and the black connector is plugged into the hard drive. Set the hard drive for "Cable Select".

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Tue May 10, 2005 1:41 pm

Tim_K wrote:I've been running my BP6 on the IDE1 port for about 4-1/2 months now. With a 40 conductor cable and a 6.4 GB 5400 rpm ST36421A hard drive ( Seagate ).

I found out that this hard drive supports ATA 66 speeds, and the IDE 1&2 ports are only for ATA 33 speeds.

So I went and got an 80 conductor cable and tried running the computer on the IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66 speeds. Didn't work. I kept getting the blue screen.

What does the BSOD say? Did you change the boot sequence in the BIOS (to "EXT/.../..." and "EXT means UDMA66")? Your boot loader and OS will have to "know" that they're on the HPT366 now and the OS has to have the drivers ready.

So am I losing performance by staying on IDE1?

Probably not. A 6.4 GB IDE drive will not be fast enough the reach the 25-28 MB/s maximum transfer rate you can expect from the IDE1/2 ports. The CPU overhead should be slighly lower on the HPT366, but I guess the difference is negligible.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:52 am

Tim_K wrote:I've been running my BP6 on the IDE1 port for about 4-1/2 months now. With a 40 conductor cable and a 6.4 GB 5400 rpm ST36421A hard drive ( Seagate ).

I found out that this hard drive supports ATA 66 speeds, and the IDE 1&2 ports are only for ATA 33 speeds....How can I run the hard drive off of IDE 3 / 4? Or otherwise get ATA 66 speeds?

Tim,
Hyperspace and Wolfram nailed it.
First----- make sure the cable and jumpers are right
second-- get the BIOS
third----- hope you don't have HPT666. ha ha. lol

If you get it to work you will see moments of increased speed on the HPT366 but the actual volume of disk reading/writing will dictate how much benifit you get. I noticed it on my Maxtor 6gig(5400rpm/512kcache) drive when Win2000 was booting and the white line went across the bottom of the screen. The HTP was clearly faster then IDE1...not quite twice as fast. When I changed to an 80gig(7200rpm/8Mcache) that line was maybe 10 times faster then IDE1.

Disk manufacturers get away with advertising ATA66 because during the time the data is being transfered from that half meg(512K) cache buffer it can hit greater then 33 data transfer. After the cache is empty the transfer is not likely even 15-25. Depending on how fraged the drive is.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:59 am

double post???

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Wed May 11, 2005 1:08 am

again??? I swear, I only hit submit once then I hit back.!?!?!

Tim_K · Post by **Tim_K** » Wed May 11, 2005 8:43 am

I'll go back into the BP6 and try again. I hadn't changed the boot sequence to start with EXT, or the UDMA66 thing, wherever that is. Or the cable select jumper on the hard drive.

This BP6 has the RU BIOS and a 1.21 or 1.22 HPT366. I'll have to look at it on the next boot up.

I'm looking to max out this BP6 has much as I can (short of buying a 7200 rpm hard drive, that is).

It's already got 2 533 Celerons at 600 Mhz, and 768 MB of PC133 memory. And Windows 2000 Pro SP4.

Tim_K · Post by **Tim_K** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:02 am

My HPT366 is a 1.22 version.

I set the hard drive to cable select on the jumper, blue plug in IDE3, black plug in the hard drive, Went in the BIOS and set the boot sequemce to EXT / C / A (this computer has only one hard drive, no floppy or CD drive).

And I changed the "EXT means..." option to UDMA66.

After exiting the BIOS, letting it reset, and restarting it again, it still says "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE" on the blue screen.

Is the HPT366 not used on IDE 1/2 ?

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:26 pm

Tim_K wrote:...Is the HPT366 not used on IDE 1/2 ?

IDE3 and IDE4 are connected to the HPT366 controller.

Dave Rave · Post by **Dave Rave** » Thu May 12, 2005 4:22 am

apart from all other options, soon to be .....

what OS ?
if it's win2k, it won't work anyway.
the boot device is
array(0)device(0)thingy(0)part(0) etc ........
and if you change it to another thingy, all your boot things won't be the same so it won't work anyway.

and.............. ide 3&4 are the hpt366, and we ALL know that it apparently sux, longterm.
if it works, it might not continue to work.

if it's win98, you won't yet have your hpt drivers loaded. that's why you boot to your ide, and get your data off of your hpt.

in long (short) don't use the port 3&4

Tim_K · Post by **Tim_K** » Sat May 14, 2005 11:23 pm

I went back to the stock IDE #1 and 40 conductor cable. It works good again now.

BP6.Com

Problems with IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66.

Problems with IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66.

Re: Problems with IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66.

Re: Problems with IDE 3&4 ports for ATA 66.