2 Quick HD related questions

Hi, Two real quick questions I'm sure you guys will be able to answer. 1. Is ATA-4 the same as ATA-66? I bought a HD a while back that was advertised as ATA-66, when I have subsequently checked the specifications on the manufacturers web page I'm told it's ATA-4.

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Hi,
Two real quick questions I'm sure you guys will be able to answer.
 
1. Is ATA-4 the same as ATA-66?
I bought a HD a while back that was advertised as ATA-66, when I have subsequently checked the specifications on the manufacturers web page I'm told it's ATA-4.
 
2. Under Win98 you know if you are running in say ATA-33 mode by checking the DMA boxes under the Hard Drive properties.
How do you know/set the same thing up for Win2000 or is it all done automatically?
 
Cheers again people.

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1207 Posts
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OP
What I meant to add to the bottom of the previous post was:
It is an IBM Deskstar 22GXP
At the top of the page for this drive: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/desk/ds22gxp.htm
 
It says 'Highlights' - Interface-Ultra-ATA/66
But if you scroll down to the bottom of the page under product specs it says:
Interface: ATA-4
 
I guess an e-mail to IBM would give me the definitive answer.

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To answer your question. Yes. ATA-4 is the same as UDMA-66. I just bought 2 new Maxtor 7200rpm UDMA-66 and when I boot up and my HPT366 bios comes up, it has my drives listed and then ATA Mode 4.
 
Now my question is to you. Are you running the drive on a controller that supports UDMA66 or just UDMA33? If it is on a standard controller then goto system...hardware....device manager...then (your controller)...then (the channel it is on)...then advanced settings. Then set it is DMA if available. Then Ok. Then reboot.

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Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes I am running on an ATA-66 controller.
It's the on-board HPT-366 controller on the ABit BE6-II MB.
Win2000 obviously sees this controller as a SCSI device, but nowhere in the properties for the controller can I see the option to enable DMA transfer or similar.
As a follow up question:
Later today I will have two ATA-66 HD's, the IBM 22GB unit mentioned above, and also a 20.5GB IBM unit.
As my DVD, CD-RW & ZIP are all SCSI, running off an Adaptec 2940, I don't need any of the standard IDE controllers enabled on my motherboard.
Would I get a performance increase if I ran each of my ATA-66 IBM drives off of their own channel on the motherboard?
Or should I just do the usuall slave/master configuration on the primary ATA-66 channel?

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Any device put on a 66 controller is already set to use DMA by default. If a device doesn't like being on the 66 controller, it's most likely because it does not support DMA.