New Harddrive

[chad7989]

This is the hard drive I currently have
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/SpinPointP80Series/SP0802N.asp?page=Specifications

And I want to get a new one because of complications with my current one's primary IDE channel. I am currently looking for a new one and was wondering if I could get some opinions on these, and if they are compatible with my computer, and advantages of one over of the others. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.

First one (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1482106&Tab=2&NoMapp=0)
Second (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1892384)
Third (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1107152)

[Erik]

Well first of all we would need to know about your computer to know if they were compatible. If you are already running an IDE drive basically any other IDE drive would work.

You mentioned problems with the primary IDE channel, but this is a part of the motherboard not the drive. What is the exact problem you are having, maybe a new HD isn't the solution. Have you tried running the makers drive test utilites yet?

[chad7989]

The IDE channel keeps switching from UDMA5 transfer to PIO mode, and I keep having to delete the driver then reboot for it to work right again, but it only stays in UDMA5 for like twenty minutes then switches back again, and it's very annoying and I don't know how to permenately fix it. I looked it up on Microsoft's site and it had a thing to fix it via the registry, but when I do that fix it runs even slower so I thought if I got a new harddrive I'd be in the clear. My motherboard is an Intel 845GV.

[rond36]

I agree with Erik It sounds like a motherboard chipset driver problem and a new hard drive will not solve your problem.

Have you tried to find updated drivers for your motherboard?
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[Sylvander]

Is your hardware setup capable of supporting UDMA5?
Are you running a [slow] opticall drive on the same controller as the [faster] HDD?

QUOTE
"Hard disk controllers on modern systems support running the master and slave device at different speeds, if one supports faster transfer modes than the other. Some systems, however, especially older ones, do not. If you are using two devices with radically different maximum transfer rates, and the chipset doesn't support independent timing, you will slow down the faster device to the speed of the slower one.

The ability of an IDE/ATA channel to operate a master and slave device using different transfer modes is called independent device timing. The hard disk controllers integrated on modern chipsets all pretty much support independent timing, as do modern add-in controllers, but this was not always the case. Independent timing can be an issue if, for example, you upgrade an older PC and get a new, high-speed drive, but want to continue to be able to use the older one on the same channel with the new one.

If your system does not support independent device timing, and you use a newer hard disk that supports PIO mode 4 on the same channel as an older hard disk that operates only at PIO mode 0, the system will knock down the PIO mode to 0 for both drives. This will hamper the performance of the newer hard disk. The lack of independent device timing on many older systems is one reason why placing ATAPI devices like CD-ROMs on the same channel as a fast hard disk is usually not recommended."

[chad7989]

Everything should be fine, it's worked for almost a year now and has just recently acted up in the past few months. I'm trying to get the drivers now, but it's complicated. When I downloaded the driver off of Intel's site, I install it, but it doesn't give me a place for me to choose to save it to, so I have no idea where it's installing the utility lol Can I just go to the device manager and where it says system board, just right click > delete, then it will auto restart and it'll install the driver over again to fix the problem?

[Sylvander]

Are you trying to "Update Driver" for your IDE controllers?

If so...
a. Download the driver files to a folder on your partition/drive [I make and use a "C:\00tmp" folder]. Uncompress/unpack them if they are in an archive. The ".inf" file is the important one.

b. Open "Device Manager" at your IDE controllers.
Here's mine in Win98SE displayed with "View devices by connection" chosen and the tree expanded ["Numlock + *", then "Numlock"].

[Sylvander]

I'm doing this in Win98SE remember, so yours may be slightly different.

Select [highlight] the controller and click "properties", then click the "Driver " tab, then click on the "Update Driver" button...

[Sylvander]

The "Update Driver Wizard" opens...

[Sylvander]

I tell it to search for a driver that's better than the present driver...

[Sylvander]

Browse to the "C:\00tmp" folder where I put the driver files [the ".inf" file being what the wizard is looking for to check whether the driver specified within that (text) file is indeed a better match to the hardware than the driver presently installed]...

[Sylvander]

I cant go through the whole procedure to install a new IDE controller driver on my PC, but...
The next step would/should be that the wizard does indeed find that the driver mentioned [in the inf file] is better than the exixting driver, so it tells you that it has found a suitable driver and identifies the driver it has found.
All you need to do then is to give it the go-ahead to install it.
The wizard will then tell you that the driver has been installed successfully. :D

You need to then repeat that for the Secondary IDE Controller also.

[Sylvander]

Notice how any folder with a zero at the beginning of its name is put very near the top of the folder system.

[chad7989]

Thanks for the help. I can't find the driver though. I need the IDE channel driver for an Intel 845GV and all I can find is some setup utility that doesn't do anything.

[Sylvander]

"When I downloaded the driver off of Intel's site"
I think you need to download the drivers from the motherboard manufacturers site.
[Not that I'm any expert, but I believe...]
The chipset manufacturers only make generic drivers that m/b manufacturers then go on to modify to suit their m/b.