Help with hard drive

[Wil]

Hello people. This is Max asking a favour of those with good computing...heads. Again. Sorry.

I've decided to turn DMA on on my hard drive (and I suppose I might as well do it for my CD drive too), but I can't find out whether my machine supports DMA. I didn't get any paperwork with it because it came from B.B.M. Computers, which is a trustworthy company, but is a one-man operation.

I've searched the Internet, but I can't see that my hard drive manufacturers actually have a website. All I can find is a bunch of techno-babble.

So please, could someone exlain either how to find out whether my C:/ can support DMA, or just tell me. I'd be greatly greatful.

p.s. Just to make it that bit easier, I'll actually give the names of the drives.

The CD Drive is an 'X12 ATAPI CD-ROM'.
The Hard Disk is a 'GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47'.

[Danny]

I managed to get to the term "DMA" before getting totally lost... Sorry, but I know next to nothing about computers, and wouldn't know where to begin...

[Pilot]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp In most cases, Ultra DMA can be enabled in the CMOS setup. I will warn you in advance: enabling Ultra DMA on a non UDMA compliant hard drive can be disastrous! As long as you're sure that your hard drive can support the extended data transfer rate, then the next factor in this would be to make sure that the system's BIOS can support it. To check this, enter the Bios' CMOS setup. This can be done by pressing DEL, in most cases, after the memory has finished counting after turning on the computer. There will most likely be a message that says something along the lines of "Press DEL to enter setup. It may also consist of some other key combination. Once you have entered the setup routine, check any/all of the categories for an option regarding "DMA Transfer" or "UDMA Channel..." Once again, if you are SURE you want to do this, enable the option, save and exit setup, and restart your computer.

[Wil]

I'd be lying if I said I understood your advice, Pilot, but at least I now know how to operate this mysterious BIOs thing. I'm fully versed in the risks and dangers of the operation, thanks to an A4 sheet of paper from The Rooke's Nest, which also explains the reasonably-simple method used to actually activate DMA (I even held my cursor over the check-box).

However, despite everyone's best simplified techno-babble, I still can't find whether my drives can support DMA of any kind, nor whether my BIOs-thingy can second that. The only DMA-related stuff in the CMOS (what's that stand for?) blue-screen was a series of DMA chanels:

DMA CHANEL 0 PnP
DMA CHANEL 1 PnP
DMA CHANEL 3 PnP
DMA CHANEL 5 PnP
DMA CHANEL 6 PnP
DMA CHANEL 7 PnP

The great thing about computers is that you can operate them safely without understanding how they work, as long as you do what you're told. The dificult bit is understanding what you're told.

Still, I appreciate your help. It got me one step further - no wait two...it's encouraged me to go out and buy a big book on computer science.

And then phone a friend of mine to see if there's anything more powerful yet easier to understand than HTML, and then buy a big book on that.

[Pilot]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspI am pleased to hear that Max! CMOS stands for "Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor." Since the bios and setup routine are located on CMOS logic, that is where the name comes from.


&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspOkay, those settings that you listed are regarding the Plug and Play characteristics of the DMA (or Direct Memory Access) channel; those of which are assigned to peripherals rather then the hard drive. So to be concise; that is not what you're looking for. May I ask how many years old this computer is? It may already have UDMA/33 enabled by default, and it will automatically enable/disable depending upon whether the hard drive supports it or not. So in that fashion, you'd be good to go.

[Wil]

From The Rooke's Nest website:

Right-click "My Computer", select "Properties" from the pop-up menu, click the "Device Manager" tab, expand the Disk Drives entry, double-click your disk drive, click the "Settings" tab, then set the check for the DMA box if it's cleared. Click OK. Restart your PC. Repeat for each disk drive and even the CD-Rom (if it supports DMA).

I've looked here, and the checkbox is clear.

I couldn't say how old our computer is: at a rough estimate, I'd say I've had it two years, but it was second hand when we got it. We had to give it a complete re-fit, though, when a virus destroyed that hard-drive. So I've no idea.

[Doug]

If you know what the processor is (e.g., Pentium II/III, AMD Athlon, etc.) and clock speed (e.g., 266 MHz/433 MHz, etc.), Pilot will have a pretty good idea of its age/capabilities.

[Wil]

Main Processor: AMD-K6/300
Processor Clock: 300MHz

Phew! That was easy!

[Pilot]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspOh, goodness Max! That computer obviously will not support UltraDMA. BUT: That is not the case in this matter. Enabling Logical DMA in the device manager is not going to hurt your computer at all. Go ahead and check that box. 99% of the time, it peps up the machine. The other 1% of the time, it will cause annoying program errors, but nothing really serious. And if that ever happens, you can simply turn it back off.

[Wil]

Great, that's super. I've ticked it and restartd and stuff - and I've encountered absolutely no problems (that I wasn't having before, anyway). Only trouble is I can't see any noticeable improvement.