A few performance related questions

[henryfarbles]

I just bought a maxtor 40gb hard drive. While installing the HD I decided to switch my acer 16x dvd drive to secondary master(it was secondary slave before) to increase ripping speeds. Now when I try to rip a dvd in smartripper, the speeds will jump up and down quite often but usually averaging at about 0.9x which is even slower than it was before.Should I switch it back to slave or is there something else I can do? Also I partitioned my new hd to dedicate to video related stuff. Should I run my vcd related programs from the partition or from the main hd? I also left the old hard drive in as primary slave. I assumed since my new hd is faster that it would be better to partion it and use the partition for video(am I wrong?) My mouse moves very slowly as well when the hd is loading. Is this a problem or is it normal for a maxtor? Thankyou for your time and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Braindrain]

Ummm... what are your hardware specs?

[Darkbird]

Sounds like you need to re-enable DMA for your drive(s).
Device Manager -> Disk Properties

[henryfarbles]

My system specs are:
intel celeron 500mhz
192 mb ram
16x acer dvd
maxtor 40gb hd (master)
western digital 12.6gb hd (slave)

Also, I do have DMA enabled on both hd's as well as the dvd drive. i've noticed somewhat of a general slowness with my computer, last night it took me 20 min. to unrar a file that would have taken about 5 before.

[Saemin]

hmmm.... i noticed a system slowdown a while ago too... nto sure if it was before or after i put in my new hd.... but oddly enuf, upon cold boot, my system's pretty slow... but during boot up, when i turn my comp on, and shut it off when windows FIRst starts to load (using the on/off button.. not the reset), and turn it back on again, it's a LOT faster.... windows loads a lot quicker..games faster... etc.
maybe it has something to do with me trying to overclock awhile ago (damaged something perhaps?), instead of the new hd, but u mite as well give it a try... ^^;;

[bishop]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-05 00:54:50, henryfarbles wrote:
I just bought a maxtor 40gb hard drive. ... I also left the old hard drive in as primary slave... I assumed since my new hd is faster that it would be better to partion it and use the partition for video(am I wrong?)
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

You are correct in dedicating one drive for your video but it seems that you got the settings wrong. Leave your old drive as the primary master. Yes, booting up will be faster with your new drive but remember you are using it for your OS and video processes so there is a performance compromise. If your OS is running on a separate drive and the faster drive (dedicated) handles the video, it would be a lot faster for you... Of course, you could partition it as well to keep fragmentation to a minimum...

[henryfarbles]

I discconnected my slave drive and it seemed to take care of the slowdown. Ripping speeds are back to normal and the mouse doesn't slow down anymore during loading. Is there a way for me to hook it back up without having these problems? Will the drive load if i have the jumper settings set wrong? The reason I ask is because I didn't have the western digital manual so I set the jumper to the typical slave position. I tried it the way it was first and it didn't load but when I changed the jumper it worked.

[bishop]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>On 2001-07-05 18:17:32, henryfarbles wrote:
Will the drive load if i have the jumper settings set wrong? </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

NO.

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>On 2001-07-05 18:17:32, henryfarbles wrote:
The reason I ask is because I didn't have the western digital manual so I set the jumper to the typical slave position. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

The jumper settings are usually printed on the topside of the disk...

[henryfarbles]

Thanks to everyone who replied. It seems to me that having the western digital hooked up as slave is causing the maxtor to slow down. I haven't tried the western digital as master yet but will soon. Has anyone else had any problems with the same setup?