VIA IDE Bus Master drivers - Miniport or VxD?

[Bane25]

Hi.

What is the difference between Miniport and VxD options on the VIA 4in1 IDE Bus Master
drivers?

I tried Miniport, and it updated the Bus Master device in Win98SE Device Manager. It also
made it so that Windows would recognize my IBM 75GXP harddrive (lists it as an IBM drive
now, under "Drives" in Device Manager). I used HD Tach to benchmark it and found that
CPU usage was high, at 22%, with burst read speed at 66.7. *Note*, under Properties on
my harddisk, I don't have the option to turn on or off DMA

Then I tried installing VxD. This time, the Bus Master device in Device Manager reverted
to the older one, with an earlier date on the driver info. Also, under "Drives", Windows
no longer recognizes my IBM drive. It only lists it as "Generic Harddisk Type47". Under
Properties on my harddisk, there _is_ an option to click on or off DMA. I ran HD Tach
again and this time CPU usage dropped to 7.7%, with burst read speed at 66.9

So now the question is, which driver should I use? Miniport or VxD? Miniport is a lot
newer, and I think it tends to run more stable, however, it's slightly slower, and uses
more CPU power. Whereas VxD is older, uses less CPU power, and runs a tiny bit faster...
However, while using VxD, the IDE Tool that comes with the drivers don't work for me.
It doesn't recognize that I have VIA bus mastering, it says "This is only for VIA bus
mastering" and then quits, not letting me use it. With Miniport, the tool would let me
run, however, it doesn't detect *any* of my drives. So either way, I can't use it to
check my UDMA mode and settings, etc. WTF? To add more mystery, www.viahardware.com
suggests the usage of "Miniport", but doesn't say why. Any Thoughts?

-Bane25

 

[Bane25]

Bump

 

[sad]

Hi, from what I've read in the past, the Vsd driver supplements Microsoft's built in ide drivers to fix any incompatibities between via's chipset and certain ide drives. While the miniport is VIA's version of the driver, that's why that idetool only works when your using miniport.

For me, I didn't get a choice between the 2 when I installed the 4in1 drivers. It either picked one automatically or didn't install one at all because i'm using raid.

 

[MeloManiac]

You never get the choice of which busmaster driver when installing 4-in-1. It always installs the VXD. You have to install the busmaster only drivers to get the choice.