ATA/100 Harddrives not running at full speed?

This may seem like an easy on to some, but I have been furstrated with this one for days.

Two of my systems at home (One windows, on linux) each have two hard drives installed. The problem being that the secondary hard drive on each machine is only being used in udma mode 2. These drives shold be functioning in udma mode 5.

More detailed information concerning each system is below.


( Machine 1 : Windows XP )

- Two IDE channels exist.
- First Channel: (1) Western Digital 80GB Harddrive
- Second CHannel: (1) Western Digital 80GB Harddrive

( Machine 2 : Linux )

- Two IDE channel exist
- First Channel: (1) Western Digital 100GB Harddrive and (1) Maxtor 30GB Hardrive
- Second Channel: 1 52x Lite-on CD-ROM


There you have it.

I have been through the hardware device configuration on the Windows XP machine. I can only toggle between PIO and UDMA modes, I cannot increase the speed of UDMA modes. Thus, my second WD Harddrive always reports UDMA mode 2. I am using an ASUS p4p800 mobo, and according to the specs, both channels will run at UDMA 5. I want it at 5, dag nabbit!?!?!?

Now for the linux machine. You'll notice I have both drives on the same channel for this one, but I still have the same issue. The primary drive is working at udma mode 5, while the secondary drive is only at udma mode 2. Shouldn't they both be in mode 5? I've been using hdparm to try and force the drive, but it will always fall back to udma mode 2.


I can't figure it out. At first, I thought the HDD cables weren't capable of reaching ATA/100, but they indeed are the right cables in both machines.

I've even switched the drives around in each machine to see if anything would change. No matter what I do on either machine, the Secondary Drive is ALWAYS defaulting to udma mode 2.

Any help on this one would be appreciated!

this could be several things:
mini port and bus mastering drivers(chipset drivers)
bios udate may be needed
firmware update
install the manufacturers software for the drives

a google search would be more decriptive than i can be without knowing the full specs of the systems in question