ATA 100 in Win2k with Promise controller?

[pulse8]

I have an Ultra100 promise controller. In Win2k it recognizes it as a SCSI device. Does this mean that it is not affected by the fact that Win2k doesn't recognize ATA 100? So, are my IDE drives that are recognized as SCSI because of the Promise controller running at full ATA 100 speed?

Thanks
David

 

[ceraph]

The fact that they're recognized as "SCSI" has nothing to do with the Promise controller, but moreso with how Windows handles mass storage controllers.

In order to facilitate control of such devices, Windows (and Promise as a result) configure their device drivers to recognize the controllers as SCSI devices. This in no way affects how they function or at what speed/performance level.

Because the controller is configured as a SCSI controller, it makes Windows assume that the drives are SCSI as well.

The only real noticable difference between having an IDE disk recognized as an IDE/SCSI device is that Windows doesn't park the drive as it shuts down. Honestly, there is no other difference.

Having the drive set as SCSI doesn't affect how the cache works, or how data is written to the drive.

And if you want to know the truth -- if your drives WERE SCSI, it'd be faster than ATA/100 anyway =). SCSI-2 UW drives can maintain more than the 37MB/sec that ATA/100 is capable of.

 

[pulse8]

Ok, I appreciate the reply, but it doesn't answer my question. I installed that fix for ATA 100. I was wondering if Win2k is taking advantage of ATA 100 even though the drives are recognized as SCSI devices? Basically, I guess. Will that fix or any fix get my drives to work with ATA 100 in Win2k while using a Promise controller?

Thanks,
David

 

[jema]

I think the fix was intended for something else (undocumented, hellooo Promise), but your drive does run in UDMA-5 if the drive, cantroller and cable is up to it. Why not do a benchmark on it?

 

[pulse8]

I have, but I have no idea if it shows that the drives are running at Ultra 5.

Thanks
David

 

[jema]

I dont know how and if you can get it to actually tell that it's going at it full speed, but it should say in what mode the driver works when the Promise card detects drives on bootup. Other than that the only thing I can think of is the becnhmark score.