Help - Read speed 3.6MB/s?

[iceking]

I have run a speed test after using adobe premiere pro (dropping lots of frames) and it says I have a read speed of 3.6MB/s. Is this usual? What do I need to do to correct the performace?

My hard drive is a maxtor 6y120po

[iceking]

Anyone know if this is normal?

[Kryten]

Can you check that your drive is running in DMA mode? Check device manager and check the controller settings under there (not the drive settings)

[iceking]

I have checked control settings and it is set to DMA if available

[Kryten]

What does it report though? It should give you the current DMA mode.

I presume that your disk is defragmented ok etc? Is it the only disk in your system?

[Dave h-j]

Not sure how the read test works, but if you are low on memory it could be swapping out, which would increase the number of read/write operations to your disks and reduce overall throughput.

Obviously this will only have an effect if swap is on teh same disk as the test util location..

[iceking]

What does it report though? It should give you the current DMA mode.

I presume that your disk is defragmented ok etc? Is it the only disk in your system?

Primary IDE channel

Device 0 PIO mode

Device 1 Multi-word DMA Mode 2

It is relatively new (a few months) and have been defragment fairly recently. It is also the only hard drive.

[RonnyJ]

You shouldn't be on PIO for Device 0 (which is a lot slower than DMA), but I'm not entirely sure why it'd be on PIO if it's set to 'Use DMA if available'... hmm.

Edit: There's this from Microsoft:
SYMPTOMS
After you suspending and resume your computer several times, hard disk performance may be reduced. If you use Device Manager to view the properties of the IDE channel towhich the drive is connected, the Advanced Settings tab may show that the current transfer mode for the drive is "PIO Mode."http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817472

Do you suspend/resume your PC perhaps? (although apparently XP SP2 fixes this). The speed drop could also happen if your hard drive has been encountering errors, but I would hope this isn't the case.

[iceking]

You shouldn't be on PIO for Device 0 (which is a lot slower than DMA), but I'm not entirely sure why it'd be on PIO if it's set to 'Use DMA if available'... hmm.

Edit: There's this from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817472

Do you suspend/resume your PC perhaps? (although apparently XP SP2 fixes this). The speed drop could also happen if your hard drive has been encountering errors, but I would hope this isn't the case.

Thanks. Seems to have done the trick