steeviebops
New Member
Does anyone know if Western Digital have an equivalent tool to Seagate's UATA100.EXE to change the drive's maximum transfer mode? I've been trying to find one for an old Caviar 21600 but I haven't been able to so far.
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Setting transfer mode on WD drives
- Thread starter steeviebops
- Start date
Stone
10k Member
You're trying to get blood out of a rock! The 21600 is an ATA2 drive -- not an ATA-100.
steeviebops
New Member
I know that!
I'm trying to use it on a 430TX motherboard, which should support ATA-33, but no matter what I use it on, the board only detects the drive as PIO-4. The motherboard detects other drives as ATA-33 so I know it's not the board. It looks like ATA-33 is disabled in the firmware on the drive (it's a Compaq OEM drive), despite WD's spec sheet stating that it supports ATA-33.
I'm trying to use it on a 430TX motherboard, which should support ATA-33, but no matter what I use it on, the board only detects the drive as PIO-4. The motherboard detects other drives as ATA-33 so I know it's not the board. It looks like ATA-33 is disabled in the firmware on the drive (it's a Compaq OEM drive), despite WD's spec sheet stating that it supports ATA-33.
hargle
Veteran Member
I think you would need to issue a set features command (0xef) to the drive to set the xfer mode. If it is truly supported, the drive will accept the change, otherwise it will command abort and there is nothing more than you can do. The setting would revert back to PIO-4 after every power on or drive reset.
I have a home-brew DOS tool that sends ATA commands to drives that you could use to experiment with this. It's simple to use, but you have to be pretty familiar with the ATA specification to understand what you're doing. Shoot me a PM and I'll send it to you.
I have a home-brew DOS tool that sends ATA commands to drives that you could use to experiment with this. It's simple to use, but you have to be pretty familiar with the ATA specification to understand what you're doing. Shoot me a PM and I'll send it to you.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Well, the Caviar wasn't the fastest kid on the block--even back in the day. In fact, it appears that it was only half as fast as the Quantum Fireball ST. Independent test.
So you may indeed be beating a dead horse. I do have a couple of these drives (not from Compaq) and can run a test to see if your results are different.
So you may indeed be beating a dead horse. I do have a couple of these drives (not from Compaq) and can run a test to see if your results are different.
steeviebops
New Member
Nah, looks like this is a non-runner alright.
Took a lot of looking but I eventually found that WD do have an official utility to set the UDMA mode, called DLGUDMA.EXE. When I run it on this drive, it shows that ATA33 is supported and tries to enable it. It says it was successful and to power cycle the drive, but it reverts to PIO-4 on a reboot. I'd say it's hard disabled. It's not a big deal, just would have liked to enable it if possible.
Wouldn't be the first time I've seen something weird with Compaq drives. Back in 2002 I was rebuilding some Pentium III iPAQ desktops in work. I remember they all had 8.4GB Seagate U Series drives, except for one that had a drive that was replaced under warranty. It was a 20GB WD drive, but it had its capacity capped to 8.4GB. Wasn't anything to do with the 8.4GB BIOS cap because the iPAQs were capable of taking more; it was recognised as 8.4GB in other PCs too.
Took a lot of looking but I eventually found that WD do have an official utility to set the UDMA mode, called DLGUDMA.EXE. When I run it on this drive, it shows that ATA33 is supported and tries to enable it. It says it was successful and to power cycle the drive, but it reverts to PIO-4 on a reboot. I'd say it's hard disabled. It's not a big deal, just would have liked to enable it if possible.
Wouldn't be the first time I've seen something weird with Compaq drives. Back in 2002 I was rebuilding some Pentium III iPAQ desktops in work. I remember they all had 8.4GB Seagate U Series drives, except for one that had a drive that was replaced under warranty. It was a 20GB WD drive, but it had its capacity capped to 8.4GB. Wasn't anything to do with the 8.4GB BIOS cap because the iPAQs were capable of taking more; it was recognised as 8.4GB in other PCs too.
GiGaBiTe
Veteran Member
This is called HPA (Host Protected Area). HPA is used to hide some portion of the usable disk space from the BIOS/OS.
The most common use of HPA were to make larger drives work on machines with INT13h geometry problems (namely the 8.4 GB barrier) or for OEMs to hide recovery partitions in inaccessible portions of the disk (to avoid them being accidentally deleted.)
If you have a drive artificially cut with HPA, you can use MHDD or HDAT2 to remove the HPA to regain the full capacity of the disk. Just be aware that if anything exists in the hidden area of the disk, it will be destroyed when you format the disk again.
As a side note, I have one of those Compaq iPaqs, though it's been Frankenstein'd:
http://i.imgur.com/JHMyFHt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/d6L0d2F.jpg
At first I maxed it out with a PIII 1 GHz and 512M of RAM, but after awhile even that was a bit tired running Windows XP. So I shoehorned this AMD quad in and it works quite well after extensive modification to the case. Now it's an AMD A8-6500 @ 4.1 GHz with 8 GB of DDR3-1600
It runs Windows 7 x64 and I use it for a guest light gaming machine.steeviebops
New Member
Nice! I like that mod. Been a long time since I've seen one of those.
Been a long time since I've seen one of those.GiGaBiTe
Veteran Member
It was a pain to do but was worth it.
The hardest parts were the power supply and the front panel wiring.
Since the original PSU was only 90W and proprietary, I had to remove the innards and put the innards of a 300W MicroATX PSU inside it.
The front panel was another chore since the power button and activity lights came out on a ribbon cable and the USB and sound/mic were wired in non-standard fashion.
The hardest parts were the power supply and the front panel wiring.
Since the original PSU was only 90W and proprietary, I had to remove the innards and put the innards of a 300W MicroATX PSU inside it.
The front panel was another chore since the power button and activity lights came out on a ribbon cable and the USB and sound/mic were wired in non-standard fashion.