Which is faster? USB2 or IDE/ATAPI connection?

[sstavross]

Hi!

I've just bought the LG GSA-4120B DVDwriter (12X8X4X)and put it as slave in the IDE2 port.The problem is that I tried to burnt a DVD, 3,6GB in size. The nero said that it would take 14min at the writting speed of 8X but it took 30min to finished! Also, to rip the original DVD took me 25 min with DVDdecrypt. in the speed of 2,4X.Why is this so slow? I have an old PC with Celeron 900MHz. Will be a good solution to by an external case and put the LG in it and then connect it via usb 2 port? I am asking because a friend of mine has an external DVD writer and it took me about 16 min to burn a DVD 4,7 GB(in the 4x speed. ( I have usb 2 via a PCI card)

Thanks!
stavros

[Capmaster]

I'm not sure that will help you. I think the IDE is the fastest option. The USB controller runs off the PCI bus - same as the IDE, so if the problem is in the PCI speed, both will be slow.

You have issues with your IDE that you might be able to tweak. See if your optical drives support DMA (Direct Memory Access). Go into device manager and find the IDE controllers.

Go to the advanced tab and see what the transfer method is currently set at. If it's set to PIO (Prpgrammed Input/Output), that might be a problem. Try to set it to DMA if you can. If you can't, see if you have the most current drivers for your MB IDE interface.

[sstavross]

Capmaster you are great!!!

You were right, the problem was the DMA! The transfer method was set to PIO.I changed it to DMA and now my DVD writer runs like a rocket!! Thank you very very much for your help!!

all the best
stavros

[jimmalenko]

CAPMASTER

[Capmaster]

Excellent!!! It's always nice when it works out

Thanks Jimm