WD10EARS slow in XP

[fzabkar]

Did Device Manager indicate that the drive was set for PIO mode?

[jimerhardt]

No.  But as I stated earlier, the controller that it's connected to doesn't list the drive or connection speed.  The controller in question shows up as a "SCSI" controller.

In any case, it's irrelevant.  If I swap HDD's it works fine, when I swap back it doesn't.  In my experience, once a controller defaults to PIO mode, you have to manually set it back.  Even if it is resetting itself somehow for the 2nd drive, it would then seem to be defaluting to PIO mode during bootup.  Which would indicate a drive issue.  In my many years of computer use, I've not had a HDD default to PIO, even when they are faulty.  CD and DVD drives when reading bad discs, but not HDD. 

If booting into Windows and immediately testing the drive, it's at 2MB, and resetting all of the channels and immediately testing the drive it's at 2MB...I don't see how there is anything I can do to get the drive to work (assuming it is defaulting to PIO mode). 

[KevinP]

I don't use XP these days , but I seem to remember that going into 'Device Manager' and deleting (un-installing?) all the controllers and re-booting would fix some DMA/PIO problems.

On a re-boot of course XP would install all the controllers again at the correct DMA setting .. worth trying anyway! .. if you haven't already of course!

[jimerhardt]

I tried the deletion method already as well as the link that was provided above.  My point being, that as soon as Windows boots, the drive is slow.  And I think we are sidetracked on the PIO issue.

[fzabkar]

If you launch regedit.exe, can you see the fast and slow drives at the following registry key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Enum

Are there any differences in the settings?

[jimerhardt]

Drive was not in PIO mode.

During testing, the PC began to not boot while the drive was attached.   WD RMA'd the drive as it's under warranty.

[jimerhardt]

It was apparently a faulty drive.  The replacement drive formatted on the first try using Disk Management.