Weird Harddrive Issues + Questions

[Grandmaster]

Two Parts to this post...

Fistly I've currently got a pretty crappy Athalon 1.1gHz w/ ABit KT7A mobo, suits me fine until i've saved enough to buy something decent (I mainly develop software so I get by). Recently I managed to fill up my 40gig Maxor harddrive with crud, so i whipped out an old 15gig harddrive i lent to my dad but never put back in my machine.

I put it in the second IDE chain, in cable select mode, everything seemed fine, I copied my 6.4gig of MP3s over to the 2nd harddrive, machine got a bit groggy, so I rebooted. From then on my computer has been dog slow (running XP Pro fully patched up) - i've disconnected the harddrive and everything, and I just cant figure it out - the harddrive doesnt seem under stress, but games have started pausing for no reason etc, any ideas why this could happen, and how to fix it?

Secondly, I'm saving up for a new computer, as developing .NET Smartphone stuff on a 1.1gig machine is no fun, I've been reading about all this BTX and PCI-Express stuff, is it best I wait till 2H 2004, when all this stuff is about? Or will it cost the earth when it's new (I don't wanna spend much), if it does then I might as well upgrade now.... Any ideas much appriciated.

Thanks in advance

Keep it real - Grandmaster

[Barry]

tryed defrag and scandisk (chkdisk) ?

[duongnt]

check if the hdd is in PIO mode or DMA mode. Using Device Manager in System in Control Panel, look under the IDEATAPI controller or something like that. If it is shown as PIO then it is the reason. Delete that IDE controller and restart the PC, it will set itself back to DMA again and life will be faster 4 u. Make sure you disconnect the old drive first.

[eldren]

If I'm not mistaken (And there's a good chance I am ), PCI-Express is 64-bit, meaning it'll only be availible on 64-bit systems. So of course it'll cost the earth - 64-bit is where the money's at, at this point in time. I'd say it'll get cheaper closer to the end of 2004.

[BoB_DoG]

Is there a possibility if that your old HDD is a slow ATA33, and your newer drive is faster (eg ATA100), that on older boards mixing and matching the two can cause both of them to run at the slower speed.

Im pretty sure this used to happen on V old boards, but Im not sure about yours as I have no experience with it.

Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this

[BoB_DoG]

Oh yea, I forgot to say - Welcome to the forums.

[Grandmaster]

Thanks for the help, ive chkdsk'ed the main drive and stuff, still havnt plugged the other one in yet, things seem to be a bit better now maybe windows was just working some of its magic in the background. I checked the IDE Channels and they where all in DMA, I will try the other drive soon and report back in my computer cripples its self again.

[DaftpuNk]

Everybody loves a nice format.

[G4Z]

I used to have a Kt7a a couple of years back and I am sure that it is an ATA133 board but asfaik if you attach 2 drives on one cable it will run at the slower speed, checking its not in PIO mode is a good suggestion as I have had this problem myself and the only way to resolve it is to remove the primary/secondary controller and restart. (will reinstall automatically)

If possible you should also put your slower drive on your CD rom IDE cable and have you main HD on its own cable or witha HD of similar speed..