SATA drive

andystyle · 11th-August-2006, 08:01 AM

I upgraded my IDE drive to a SATA, and have noticed some problems...after I load up my Windows XP (Pro) username, the system can sometimes take forever and a day to get everything up and running. And then once it IS up and running, opening something like Media Player or tinternet can take a lot of that horrible hard-drive thinking noise too.

Other times the machine loads up A-OK. Has anyone else had this problem - is it a SATA thing or a software thing? My thought is software, but having wiped and re-installed the problem comes back...

Any thoughts? Cheers!

bigdjiver · 11th-August-2006, 10:06 AM

Have you re-installed the operating system? A slow system can be caused by a virus, and some of these cloak themselves very effectively fron anti-virus software (feel my pain).
The other thing I did not realise when I first upgraded my drive was that the faster drives need and upgraded data cable with 80 wires, each data line being separated by an earth line.

andystyle · 11th-August-2006, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

Have you re-installed the operating system? A slow system can be caused by a virus, and some of these cloak themselves very effectively fron anti-virus software (feel my pain).

Aye, I wiped the lot and restarted from scratch. But you have a point! I'll update my virus guard and scan the system.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

The other thing I did not realise when I first upgraded my drive was that the faster drives need and upgraded data cable with 80 wires, each data line being separated by an earth line.

I'll nip down to my local PC store and see if they have any. Cheers for the info, I'll hopefully post later with a big happy smile!

**El Salsero Gringo** · 11th-August-2006, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

The other thing I did not realise when I first upgraded my drive was that the faster drives need and upgraded data cable with 80 wires, each data line being separated by an earth line.

I thought SATA was Serial ATA - just using a 4 core cable and 4 pin connectors?

David Franklin · 11th-August-2006, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Salsero Gringo

I thought SATA was Serial ATA - just using a 4 core cable and 4 pin connectors?

Correct in essence - from Wiki:

Quote:

The SATA standard defines a data cable using seven conductors and 8 mm wide wafer connectors on each end.

You most definitely do not want a 80 wide ribbon cable; that's strictly for PATA drives.

**Will** · 11th-August-2006, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andystyle

I upgraded my IDE drive to a SATA, and have noticed some problems...after I load up my Windows XP (Pro) username, the system can sometimes take forever and a day to get everything up and running. And then once it IS up and running, opening something like Media Player or tinternet can take a lot of that horrible hard-drive thinking noise too.

Other times the machine loads up A-OK. Has anyone else had this problem - is it a SATA thing or a software thing? My thought is software, but having wiped and re-installed the problem comes back...

Any thoughts? Cheers!

Sounds to me like a hardware problem with your SATA Hard Drive. SATA should be quicker than IDE. I suggest getting hold of another physical hard drive and seeing if that makes a difference.

**ducasi** · 11th-August-2006, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will

Sounds to me like a hardware problem with your SATA Hard Drive. SATA should be quicker than IDE. I suggest getting hold of another physical hard drive and seeing if that makes a difference.

I'd agree it's likely to be a hardware problem, though maybe not the disk itself... Could a motherboard problem... or even a cable problem...

**Will** · 11th-August-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ducasi

I'd agree it's likely to be a hardware problem, though maybe not the disk itself... Could a motherboard problem... or even a cable problem...

Agreed, thought statistically the Hard Drive is by far the most likely cause due to the fact that unlike the motherboard and cable, it has moving parts

andystyle · 11th-August-2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ducasi

I'd agree it's likely to be a hardware problem, though maybe not the disk itself... Could a motherboard problem... or even a cable problem...

I think I'll tinker with it over the weekend...it does have a funny little quirk though. If it loads up slowly and I lose patience (after about a minute!) and reset the machine, it usually loads up fine the next time!

**WittyBird** · 11th-August-2006, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andystyle

I think I'll tinker with it over the weekend...it does have a funny little quirk though. If it loads up slowly and I lose patience (after about a minute!) and reset the machine, it usually loads up fine the next time!

Oh yes I would be laughing about that as well, while I stamped on it

**Dreadful Scathe** · 11th-August-2006, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andystyle

I upgraded my IDE drive to a SATA, and have noticed some problems...after I load up my Windows XP (Pro) username, the system can sometimes take forever and a day to get everything up and running. And then once it IS up and running, opening something like Media Player or tinternet can take a lot of that horrible hard-drive thinking noise too.

sounds like you dont have enough memory to me !

andystyle · 11th-August-2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

sounds like you dont have enough memory to me !

Na, memory is fine - got 1GB which does me for games, so loading Windoze shouldn't be an issue. Added to which, sometimes (like this afternoon) it started grand.

Serves me right for trying to move with the times...IDE all the way!

andystyle · 11th-August-2006, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WittyBird

Oh yes I would be laughing about that as well, while I stamped on it

I've been sorely tempted.

bigdjiver · 11th-August-2006, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Salsero Gringo

I thought SATA was Serial ATA - just using a 4 core cable and 4 pin connectors?

It is quite possible I have got that wrong.

The pimply wotsit behind the counter told me it was a SATA drive, and I never thought to check on what SATA meant. It was a very nice IDE Maxtor drive, and my PC told me that I needed the 80 wire cable.

David Franklin · 11th-August-2006, 01:52 PM

On a serious note, have you made sure you have installed any necessary drivers? From what I see on forums, if you're using SATA raid, problems are almost a given unless you install the right drivers. I think normal SATA is less fussy, but as you seem to be having problems it might be worth a check.

You might also want to check your bios settings to see what drives it thinks are there and what types and priorities they all have. I think it's possible to have a scenario where the machine spends a lot of time trying to access the disk using the wrong settings/interface before finding the right one.

**WittyBird** · 11th-August-2006, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

It is quite possible I have got that wrong.

The pimply wotsit behind the counter told me it was a SATA drive, and I never thought to check on what SATA meant. It was a very nice IDE Maxtor drive, and my PC told me that I needed the 80 wire cable.

Johnny Nostars in PC World?

Why didn't you ask someone who knew what they were talking about

You'd probably have got more sense out the woman in your local chippy

**Dreadful Scathe** · 11th-August-2006, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andystyle

Na, memory is fine - got 1GB which does me for games, so loading Windoze shouldn't be an issue. Added to which, sometimes (like this afternoon) it started grand.

Serves me right for trying to move with the times...IDE all the way!

sounded like paging and swapping to me, ah well

is it windows thats the issue? you tried an ubuntu cd or something so if thats ok ? as DF says drivers could be an issue. Ive never used a SATA drive as a boot drive and havent come across any such problems with a secondary SATA drive.

**pmjd** · 11th-August-2006, 03:38 PM

Maybe worth checking maxtor's website, if I remember rightly they have some utilies that might help diagnose the problem.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...ware+Downloads

Think you've been mis-sold a bit as SATA is definitely a very small 4 pin data cable, and you need to provide a driver disk before windows will do anything as it doesn't yet support SATA drives natively.

bigdjiver · 11th-August-2006, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmjd

Maybe worth checking maxtor's website, if I remember rightly they have some utilies that might help diagnose the problem.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...ware+Downloads

Think you've been mis-sold a bit as SATA is definitely a very small 4 pin data cable, and you need to provide a driver disk before windows will do anything as it doesn't yet support SATA drives natively.

I was not mis-sold anything. I wanted an IDE drive and got one. The pimply youth volunteered the wrong info, and I thought that was another acronym to look up sometime. The drive works fine with the right cable, and I have since bought two more just like it.

**pmjd** · 11th-August-2006, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

I was not mis-sold anything. I wanted an IDE drive and got one. The pimply youth volunteered the wrong info, and I thought that was another acronym to look up sometime. The drive works fine with the right cable, and I have since bought two more just like it.

Sorry, was just reading posts a bit too quickly and thought you were looking for a SATA drive originally rather than an IDE drive.

Plus I've managed to get your posts and andystyle's muddled up, can you tell it's a Friday?

andystyle = try the manufacturers website for any handy utilities that might diagnose any faults.

11th-August-2006, 08:01 AM	#1 (permalink)
andystyle Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Glesgae! Posts: 581 Status: No Status Rep Power: 2 Rep.: 154	SATA drive I upgraded my IDE drive to a SATA, and have noticed some problems...after I load up my Windows XP (Pro) username, the system can sometimes take forever and a day to get everything up and running. And then once it IS up and running, opening something like Media Player or tinternet can take a lot of that horrible hard-drive thinking noise too. Other times the machine loads up A-OK. Has anyone else had this problem - is it a SATA thing or a software thing? My thought is software, but having wiped and re-installed the problem comes back... Any thoughts? Cheers!

11th-August-2006, 10:06 AM	#2 (permalink)
bigdjiver Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: bedford Posts: 3,793 Status: No Status Rep Power: 3 Rep.: 763	Re: SATA drive Have you re-installed the operating system? A slow system can be caused by a virus, and some of these cloak themselves very effectively fron anti-virus software (feel my pain). The other thing I did not realise when I first upgraded my drive was that the faster drives need and upgraded data cable with 80 wires, each data line being separated by an earth line.

11th-August-2006, 01:52 PM	#15 (permalink)
David Franklin Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London Posts: 2,846 Status: No Status Rep Power: 5 Rep.: 2460	Re: SATA drive On a serious note, have you made sure you have installed any necessary drivers? From what I see on forums, if you're using SATA raid, problems are almost a given unless you install the right drivers. I think normal SATA is less fussy, but as you seem to be having problems it might be worth a check. You might also want to check your bios settings to see what drives it thinks are there and what types and priorities they all have. I think it's possible to have a scenario where the machine spends a lot of time trying to access the disk using the wrong settings/interface before finding the right one.

11th-August-2006, 03:38 PM	#18 (permalink)
pmjd Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: St Andrews Posts: 1,548 Status: thinking about a new domain name Rep Power: 3 Rep.: 427	Re: SATA drive Maybe worth checking maxtor's website, if I remember rightly they have some utilies that might help diagnose the problem. http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...ware+Downloads Think you've been mis-sold a bit as SATA is definitely a very small 4 pin data cable, and you need to provide a driver disk before windows will do anything as it doesn't yet support SATA drives natively.

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