Enabling UDMA Mode 6

[BoogerBomb]

OK I just bought a new Maxtor 6Y200P0 200Gig ATA133 hard drive for $99. I install Windows on it after using the MaxBlast software to partition and format it. After installing all the WinXP updates and running the MaxBlast software to enable the BigLBA I noticed the drive is running in UDMA Mode 5 (ATA100) and not UDMA Mode 6 (ATA133). The Windows site said to reinstall the IDE driver after installing SP1 in order for Windows to see it as Mode 6. I install the Via Hyperion 4-in-1 4.53 drivers and restart only to find out MS lied and WinXP still sees it as Mode 5.

The BIOS does not allow me to force a certain mode so I am stuck with it set to Auto.

All drivers for the system are up to date.

Is there a way to fix this?

MOBO: Abit KD7A

 

[Snugglebear]

Download a SMART utility like ActiveSmart and see what mode the drive is in. I've seen windows report all sorts of garbage values for DMA & PIO modes over the years. Most recently the machine I'm using at work reports in windows as PIO mode 3. Checking it with SMART utils shows it to be in UDMA5 (ATA100) though it still performs like garbage. All that being said, there is no discernable difference between ATA100 and ATA133. Benchmarks are even hard pressed to show that the extra 33MB/s is something other than marketing, especially since your drive isn't going to run anywhere near that fast. Feel free to run this down if you like, but chances are it's not worth it. The machine at work I'm running down simply because no matter what mode it's in, that Western Disaster is performing at 4MB/s read and 2MB/s write. You don't have any idea how long that makes each compile take.