Colin's Weekly Tip: Twice the Tips Today

[Colin]

<b>Disable Double Space</b><BR>With hard drive reaching 80GB and even 120GB no one in their right mind would use Double Space or Drive Space anymore. They're still loaded into memory by default with older Win9x based operating systems though. Luckily there's a very simple fix for this...<BR><BR>Load up Windows Explorer and go to Windows, then the Command directory (you may have to enable the "Show hidden files and folders" in the Folder Options under View). From there simply renamee dblspace.bin and drvspace.bin tod blspace.bk_ and drvspace.bk_ and they will no longer load up when your computer boots. <BR><BR><b>And now for another Colin's Weekly Tech Tip</b><BR><BR>One little quirk that I have always wondered about is why WindowsXP always defaults to PIO transfer mode on the IDE channels, and not DMA? DMA not only allows for faster data transfers between hard drives and CDROM's but it also frees up a lot of CPU cycles! Luckily you can change the PIO setting very easily to DMA.<BR>Right click on the "My Computer" icon and go to "Properties". From there click the "Hardware" tab and go into your "Device Manager". From there, expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and select either the primary or secondary IDE controller.<BR><BR>Once you've got one open, go to the "Advanced Settings" tab and under transfer mode select "DMA if available". You'll want to repeat this for the other IDE channel and you may need to reboot for these changes to come into affect. Once done, you should notice your data transfers are much quicker and you have a bit more resources available when doing disk intensive activities, or watching DVD's on a DVD-ROM.<BR>

[JakkFrost]

Hiya Colin!<BR><BR>When I used 98SE I used quite a few of your tips. Since I just upped to XP Pro, I came to go through the whole thing again <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>I went thru the DMA tip, but my drives were already set to "DMA if available". Just curious, could this be one of the changes in XP-SP1? I know I did something about changing to DMA when I was running 98SE, but I have a new 80-gig for my C drive and I didn't set that to DMA manually. (Or would it automatically set it to DMA because I made that change in the system?)<BR><BR>Thanks again for the tips <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>Jakk

[grafton26]

hey jakk i found the same when i installed winxp pro , mabey colin is talking about the home edition.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">

[Avid6eek]

WinXP PRO / SP1<BR><BR>Mine were already set to DMA. Thanks anyways Colin <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

[Ace]

already set on WinXP Home SP1 too

[Zefram]

G'day to all of you,<BR>I had a Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB with 8MB cache, i've change the transfer modes setting to 'DMA if Available' but still the transfer mode is set to PIO. It's IDE channel were free and it is master on the channel, no slave. <BR>Any ideas?<BR><BR>FYI : Current bus mode is ATA-100, Intel 850i, ICH2

[Zefram]

I just solve my problem!<BR>All intel chipsets (850, 875,.........) users should download INF Update Utility software from Intel website <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp?strOSs=44&strTypes=DRV%2CARC%2CUTL&ProductID=1043&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&submit=Go%21">Intel chipset downloader</a><BR>After installing these driver, go to device manager>Primary IDE channels>Driver tabs>Update Driver. Then select search the driver automatically. It will then update the default microsoft driver for IDE channels to the newest made-by-Intel drivers. This will thus enables DMA,.............. etc. <BR>By installing these driver you are also enabled the AGP port to communicate more efficiently, according to the readme files.<BR><BR>Intel-based chipset user should also download Intel Application Accelerator <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=663">IAA</a> . This will echance your transfer mode and enables advanced option on the IDE channel and the device on that IDE channel (HDD, DVD-ROM, etc)<BR><BR>PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS FOR INTEL-CHIPSET-BASED MOTHERBOARD ONLY. (MSI,ASUS,ALBATRON,and other OEM motherboard which uses intel chipset can use this software. Some company like MSI had tweak some of intel performance-echancing software like IAA and posted it on their website)<BR>AMD USER SHOULD CONSULT AMD FOR PERFORMANCE-ECHANCING SOFTWARE (there are none)<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif" border="0">

[sobitthen]

The IAA referred to in last post is for specific controllers.<BR>'* Intel(R) Pentium(R) III or Pentium(R) 4 processor <BR> * Intel(R) 82801AA, 82801AB, 82801BA or 82801DB<BR> controllers'<BR><BR>My i875p uses a 82801EB controller.<BR><BR>Always a good idea to utilize the read-me before installing.....<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif" border="0">

[dudo]

G'day to all of you,<BR>I had a Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB with 8MB cache, i've change the transfer modes setting to 'DMA if Available' but still the transfer mode is set to PIO. It's IDE channel were free and it is master on the channel, no slave. <BR>Any ideas?<BR><BR>FYI : Current bus mode is ATA-100, Intel 850i, ICH2

I have got the same problem. I have intel D915GAV, WCD WD800BB, intel 82801 FB/FBM Ultra ATA storage controllers - 266F. I tried to solve it, like zefram did it, but I wasnt successful. Can U help me please??? I dont know what i must do. :confused:

[dudo]

I solved it. I only uninstalled my primary IDE and then it was OK. Now it is running in Ultra DMA 5, so it is really faster. :D