Mikkel:
More information about your hardware would help. I know there is a problem with some SATA controllers that also the PATA controller for the optical drive.
No ATA involved here - only pure IDE. All of this hardware (all 3 computers) are vintage 1999 - 2004 (I don't know if that matters).
Is there anything else to mention about the hardware?
If that is not the problem, you may be able to use hdparm to turn on DMA. (It should have been turned on in the BIOS...)
Are you saying that my problem is more likely that DMA is *off* (and should be on)?
Michael Klinosky wrote:
Mikkel:
If that is not the problem, you may be able to use hdparm to turn on DMA. (It should have been turned on in the BIOS...)
Are you saying that my problem is more likely that DMA is *off* (and should be on)?
Well, it depends on the drive. Not all optical drives support DMA, but any fairly new drive should. You can use hdparm to see the current settings, check what the drive supports, and to change the current settings. Depending on your BIOS, it may also possible to set DMA support for a specific drive. To get good performance from your drive, you will want DMA turned on.
Mikkel
On Sat, 2007-03-03 at 14:22 -0500, Michael Klinosky wrote:
No ATA involved here - only pure IDE.
Same thing... ATA or PATA (parallel ATA) are what you're using on your IDE interface for most hard drives over the last decade or so. ATAPI is how things like most CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs, some Zip drives and LS-120 drives use over the IDE interface.
SATA (serial ATA) is that new standard that only has a few pins, instead of the 40- or 80-wire ribbon lead.