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From: Lu.Pi. on 13 Jan 2010 16:15
Il 13/01/2010 9.31, Paul ha scritto:
> He tested
> his disk with HDTune, and the performance curve suggest the disk was
> in PIO mode, instead of DMA. That would suck the life out of the
> computer and make it feel sluggish. It should be able to do better
> than 5MB/sec as shown in the picture.

I am sorry but I did not understand this part of your answer, the words
PIO, DMA and what is the solution.
Thank you again for your help.
regards
Luca
From: Paul on 13 Jan 2010 17:33
Lu.Pi. wrote:
> Il 13/01/2010 9.31, Paul ha scritto:
>> He tested
>> his disk with HDTune, and the performance curve suggest the disk was
>> in PIO mode, instead of DMA. That would suck the life out of the
>> computer and make it feel sluggish. It should be able to do better
>> than 5MB/sec as shown in the picture.
>
> I am sorry but I did not understand this part of your answer, the words
> PIO, DMA and what is the solution.
> Thank you again for your help.
> regards
> Luca

The gentleman was using HDTune to benchmark the disk drive inside
his laptop.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/hdtunenn0.jpg

You can get HDTune here.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

When you run it, the result should be a curve with a high transfer rate.

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/710m_hdtune.JPG

The difference between PIO and DMA is

1) PIO stands for "polled transfer". Your processor moves each byte,
by reading the disk interface, and then placing the result into memory.
By doing so, perhaps 4MB/sec is the rate that the disk transfers take
place, which is relatively slow. It might take a long time for programs
to start, if PIO was being used.

2) DMA transfer is "direct memory access". In that case, the disk interface
pushed the read data into memory itself. The processor just watches
what is going on, and doesn't have to do the transfers itself. It means
the processor can be more responsive to other activities on the computer.
On IDE disks (the kind with the ribbon cable), DMA modes can operate
at up to 133MB/sec. The disk drive itself, can only achieve 60-90MB/sec,
due to the limitations of the platter. If you're using DMA, the hard
drive may be operating 15 times faster than PIO mode.

You can also check for DMA versus PIO mode, by looking at the entries in
Device Manager.

If your disk is in PIO mode (4-5MB/sec), there is a section here that describes how
to fix it. As long as there isn't a hardware limitation (BIOS setting or
hardware issue), this "workaround" procedure should work.

"IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

"To re-enable the typical, or faster, transfer mode for an affected device:

1. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
2. Click System Tools, and then click Device Manager.
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall.
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When Windows restarts,
the hard disk controller is re-enumerated and the transfer mode is reset
to the default value for each device that is connected to the controller."

That procedure assumes the setting of "DMA, if available" is being used. After
doing that, and rebooting the computer, run HDTune again and check the results.

HTH,
Paul
From: Lu.Pi. on 15 Jan 2010 14:34
Il 13/01/2010 23.33, Paul ha scritto:
> The gentleman was using HDTune to benchmark the disk drive inside
> his laptop.
> http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/hdtunenn0.jpg
> You can get HDTune here.
> http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Dear Paul
first of all thank you again for your patience and your thorought
explanation.
The result of my test is the following so I think I do not have to
proceed with any changement
http://i48.tinypic.com/wtypeg.jpg
I will search for 1 gb of memory and after that I will format the hd and
install again win xp and perhaps ubuntu/kubuntu or something like that
in order to try linux.
regards
Lucaa
From: Paul on 15 Jan 2010 18:34
Lu.Pi. wrote:
> Il 13/01/2010 23.33, Paul ha scritto:
>> The gentleman was using HDTune to benchmark the disk drive inside
>> his laptop.
>> http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/hdtunenn0.jpg
>> You can get HDTune here.
>> http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe
>
> Dear Paul
> first of all thank you again for your patience and your thorought
> explanation.
> The result of my test is the following so I think I do not have to
> proceed with any changement
> http://i48.tinypic.com/wtypeg.jpg
> I will search for 1 gb of memory and after that I will format the hd and
> install again win xp and perhaps ubuntu/kubuntu or something like that
> in order to try linux.
> regards
> Lucaa

Your performance curve looks normal (the fact the graph is curved,
tells you the transfer is media limited by the platters and heads).
I cannot tell from the Toshiba specs, whether that is the full
speed of the drive or not. Not all manufacturers give media
transfer rates. But at least you're not in PIO mode, as the
graph then tends to be a flat line rather than a curve.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=HardDrivesOpticalDrives/HardDiskDrives/MK4025GAS

This is a benchmark for the MK4025GAS on a review site.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dialogue-Flybook-A33i.1354.0.html

Toshiba MK4025GAS Benchmark
Transfer Rate Minimum: 14.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum: 27.5 MB/sec

So your graph looks perfectly normal.

Paul
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