No announcement yet.

ultra dma mode

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ultra dma mode

    Hi does anyone know if an ssd should be running in ultra dma mode 6, my 2 western digital HDDs run in ultra dma 6 but my ssd seems to be running in ultra dma 5, I'm getting the info from HDtune and Aida64, It reports ultra dma mode 6 available but using ultra dma 5, Bios reports ultra dma mode 6.
    any ideas please
    Thanks foks
    joe912

  • #2
    Re: ultra dma mode

    Hopefully you're actually not using your SSD or HDDs in UDMA 5 or UDMA 6 configuration, which would mean 80 pin IDE ribbon cables and SATA to IDE adapters for your drives and board, and running at 100 or 133MB/s maximum.

    I'm joking and not, the UDMA standards are for PATA (ATA) drives, although all modern drives, including SSDs, contain information defining the UDMA level they support. SATA protocol does not use UDMA type data transfers, but the ATA command set legacy causes the need for UDMA support that is still used in SATA.

    I doubt that your EVO has its metadata set to UDMA 5, new SSDs are at UDMA 8 (SATA 3.0) or 9 (SATA 3.1), but support all levels below that are still used.

    This is rather confusing, and the bottom line is the UDMA levels for the drives you see in those programs and BIOS does not matter regarding their performance.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: ultra dma mode

      Ok thanks for that, just thought it rather odd the meta data reporting that, what drew me to this in the first place was the fact that my Imaging backup speed has gone west, What used to take 9mins now takes 50mins It has used up too much of my brain...
      I will get to the bottom of it but at the cost of a few more brain cells, Just one question please is it ok to flash back to old firmware on my Z77 extreme 6 MB. i'm on latest 2.8, Iwas thinking to go back to 2.6?
      Thanks for your time
      joe-912

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: ultra dma mode

        How full are your back up drives, I assume one of the HDDs? If it is past half full, it will be slowing down on its write speed as it's using the inner tracks of the platters, which are slower than the outer tracks.

        You should be able to flash to 2.60 from 2.80, but I would only use the Instant Flash method. Then again, it looks like version 2.70 includes this: 4. Update ME version.

        That small statement should be referring to the Intel ME firmware, which worries me. 2.60 does nothing with the IME firmware, so it may work fine with the different IME firmware. I mention this due to the issues the Intel six series chipset boards (P67, Z68) can have when their BIOS update to support Ivy Bridge processors updates the IME firmware. I'm not seeing the (barely there) warnings the six series chipset boards have, but IMO that guarantees nothing.

        Why do you want to change to 2.60?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: ultra dma mode

          Originally posted by parsec View Post
          How full are your back up drives, I assume one of the HDDs? If it is past half full, it will be slowing down on its write speed as it's using the inner tracks of the platters, which are slower than the outer tracks.

          You should be able to flash to 2.60 from 2.80, but I would only use the Instant Flash method. Then again, it looks like version 2.70 includes this: 4. Update ME version.

          That small statement should be referring to the Intel ME firmware, which worries me. 2.60 does nothing with the IME firmware, so it may work fine with the different IME firmware. I mention this due to the issues the Intel six series chipset boards (P67, Z68) can have when their BIOS update to support Ivy Bridge processors updates the IME firmware. I'm not seeing the (barely there) warnings the six series chipset boards have, but IMO that guarantees nothing.

          Why do you want to change to 2.60?
          The backup drive is almost empty now as I exported the Images off reformatted the drive so it's got ony 15GB used on 500GB sata 3 WD Black, the reason I wanted to flash back to 2.60 because that's the only other thing I done after the first fast backup, but I am a bit worried about the Intel ME firmware bit, the ssd is 6 months old and apart from backing it up it's lightening quick in all other aspects, one weird thing is when I start the Acronis backup, C: drive in explorer reduces in size by 20GB for some unknown reason, I tried another backup program from AOMEI and that size reduction does not happen, I've reinstalled Acronis with no change....
          I'm out of options, I have thought of formatting the ssd?
          Thnaks for the info
          joe-912

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: ultra dma mode

            I doubt the BIOS version is causing the slowdown of your backups. But when you flash any BIOS, all the settings are set to default values.

            What are you using as the SATA mode in the BIOS? Also, your board has two SATA controllers, the main Intel and the secondary ASMedia. Do you use both, and what drives are connected to which SATA ports?

            From there we could determine what SATA driver(s) you are using.

            I doubt your SSD is the problem, at least without confirming its configuration and health. Do you use the Samsung Magician software? That will provide all kinds of information about the SSD's health and performance. Have you run a benchmark on the SSD to confirm its performance?

            IF you format a SSD, ONLY do a quick format, a full HDD type format, writing data to the entire drive, is the worst thing you can do to a SSD.

            IMO, you have many options left to explore.

            The Acronis sofware might use 20GB of space on the C drive as its temporary working area.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: ultra dma mode

              Hi thanks for helping
              My Drives are connected
              Sata 3_0 Samsung ssd 840 evo 250GB
              Sata 3_1 none connected
              Sata 2_2 DVD drive
              Sata 2_3 DVD ram drive
              Sata 2_4 none connected
              Sata 2_5 none connected
              Sata A3_A1 WD500 3AZEX
              Sata A3 A2 WD6401AALS

              Bios screen
              Intel sata mode selection AHCI
              Asmedia Sata3 Mode AHCI
              Advanced\Storage configuration\Sata 3_0
              Ultra DMA :6
              Sata device type Solid state drive
              Click image for larger version

Name:	SMARTdata.PNG
Views:	1
Size:	46.9 KB
ID:	754454

              Benchmarks I will upload next post
              Thanks very much
              joe-912

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: ultra dma mode

                Click image for larger version

Name:	BenchmarkSSD.PNG
Views:	1
Size:	15.1 KB
ID:	754455

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: ultra dma mode

                  Your EVO looks fine IMO. When doing backups the EVO is just reading data that is sent to the backup drive.

                  You should be able to run the same benchmark on your HDDs, it will take much longer and will give you an idea how well they perform.

                  The extra SATA chips like the ASMedia can be less than reliable, try putting one of the HDDs on the Intel SATA II ports. You won't be losing any speed instead of using an ASMedia SATA III port with a HDD.

                  When doing a backup, you could start the Windows Resource Monitor (Control Panel, Admin Tools, Resource Monitor) and see what each disk is doing.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: ultra dma mode

                    Here's the WD500 results, I will try switching it to Sata 2 Intel port and post back later, Thanks for the help!
                    Click image for larger version

Name:	WD500sata3.PNG
Views:	1
Size:	112.5 KB
ID:	754456

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: ultra dma mode

                      I tried switching WD500 to Sata 2 port, but still same results, seems to be pointing to ssd, I have my first ssd Image made by Acronis in Jan I could quick format the ssd and write this image back to ssd and see if all goes back to normal as this Image was the first which was created fast.
                      I might give it a try, unless you can think of anything before I do?
                      Thasnks
                      Joe-912

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: ultra dma mode

                        SOLVED!
                        I had 64GB of steam games still on C: ssd, I moved all these to another drive to slim down the OS, tried backing up with Acronis but still the speed would not go over 35MB/s, so in the end I did a secure errase and restored the new Image to ssd and everything is flying again, it took just 2min 32secs to Image 31.58GB or 20.74GB after compression, I've only had the ssd 6 months and read performance had fell so much!
                        Thanks for all the advice
                        joe-912

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: ultra dma mode

                          Originally posted by Joe-912 View Post
                          SOLVED!
                          I had 64GB of steam games still on C: ssd, I moved all these to another drive to slim down the OS, tried backing up with Acronis but still the speed would not go over 35MB/s, so in the end I did a secure errase and restored the new Image to ssd and everything is flying again, it took just 2min 32secs to Image 31.58GB or 20.74GB after compression, I've only had the ssd 6 months and read performance had fell so much!
                          Thanks for all the advice
                          joe-912
                          Very interesting, I read a post in another forum where a guy with a Samsung SSD posted about his SSD losing performance. He also had a lot of Steam games on his SSD, and after moving them off of it, like you did, his performance also was restored. In his case I don't think he did a secure erase on the SSD.

                          I don't use Steam at all, but the question becomes given these two incidents, what is it that Steam seems to be doing that causes the drop in the performance of the drive/SSD where the games are stored? Is there a background Steam process that somehow is the culprit? Do the Steam games somehow interfere with the SSD's operation, or cause TRIM to not work correctly? Those are just ideas I have, they are NOT facts!!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: ultra dma mode

                            Yes I am new to the ssd scene so your guess is as good as mine, I was blaming Acronis at first but after wrighting an image to a western digital HDD and trying the backup I found zero problems it was very fast, so weather the ssd had some bad blocks I don't know
                            All I read about the samsumg evos before I brought one was very good, I was a bit worried about doing a secure errase but knew it would return the ssd to factory shape, and it did.
                            I will have to just keep an eye on things for the coming months, One thing I like about ssd is the fact formatting and restoring Images is very quick, one thing that caught me out when trying to run the secure errase was an error saying the ssd was in locked state, had to remove power from the drive leaving the computer running and reconnecting after a few secs, these instructing came from the secure errase program...
                            Any way all good now!

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X