The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Moved my Hard Drive. Now it's slow. Why?

Moved my Hard Drive. Now it's slow. Why?

Hi all,

I move a 120 GB hard drive from a Dell Windows XP Home computer to a Dell Windows XP PRO computer.

It's the secondary drive on both computers.

Before I moved it, I played some AVI video (large, 3 GB or so). Ran fin on the HOME computer.

Swapped that 120 GB HD for the 60 GB hard drive I had on my PRO computer.

When I play the *same* video on the new computer (from the 120 GB HD) it stutters and it's choppy (horrible). Same happens if I play a smaller file (50 MB AVI). However, If I move that 50 MB AVI file to the Primary HD it plays just fine. So... the problem seems to be with the Secondary Hard drive on the PRO computer.

It's a Wester Digital WD1200BB-22CAA1
(Primary Drive is also a WD)

The real Entrepreneur
Friday, February 6, 2004

Check in the device manager (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager) that your controller is running a DMA mode. I assume the drive is on the second IDE controller so select that, hit properties, and check on the advanced tab.

That will definately make a different in drive performance.

Almost Anonymous
Friday, February 6, 2004

Are there other hardware differences between the two machines? Seems like there's a lot of variables here. Is *all* video on the second machine slow? Are you using the best possible IDE controller drivers on the second machine?

One thing that can slow a hard drive down slightly is if it's on the same IDE connector as a CD-ROM drive, because then the HD can't be in Ultra-66/100/133 mode. That shouldn't make a difference here, though- even 33MB/sec is waaaay more than enough for video which is usually several megaBITs per second... compared with 33megaBYES, that's nothin'. :P

One thing is certain: it's not the drive itself. It's something in the configuration or *other* hardware in the 2nd machine.

John Rose
Friday, February 6, 2004

You'll want to ensure DMA (either BIOS or Windows Device Manager) is enabled for advanced drives like that. Also

Another thing to check for is to make certain your new machine has the capability to play video (I am assuming you tested this before).

Li-fan Chen
Friday, February 6, 2004

Li-

PROBLEM SOLVED.

As I noted above, the PRo machine will play video -if it's on the Primary HD.

BUT, your DMA suggestion is a good one. Before I read your message I figured out that the Secondary drive was not using DMA mode.

I hunted for newer drivers for that HD and Controller. Found none.

Then I started up and in BIOS et the secondary from OFF to AUTO. That did the trick.

The real Entrepreneur
Saturday, February 7, 2004

Sweet, glad to be of help.

Li-fan Chen
Saturday, February 7, 2004