Slow SATA performance in Windows

[yyonline]

So I was copying some files on my test rig, and I noticed it was taking a long time. I don't usually do file copying in Windows, so this may not be a new problem.

Here's the setup:
Abit IP35-E motherboard
Silicon Image Sil3512 PCI SATA card (for hot swap capabilities/linux compatibility)

Any drive hooked up to the Silicon Image card will not go any faster than 28 MB/s under Windows. I've tested with multiple drives. Drivers are the latest for both the Silicon Image card and motherboard chipset.

The same drive on the same controller on the same computer in Linux will benchmark at 90 MB/s. So, I know the hardware is capable of faster speeds.

The same drive on the same controller in Windows on another PC will benchmark at 90 MB/s.

I swapped out the Silicon Image card for a VIA card, same problem. I tried a Promise SATA card, same problem. Again, only in Windows. All these controllers worked at full speed under Linux.

I figured some Windows file must be corrupt, so I did a clean install of XP Pro, but no difference.

I think my options are the following "failure points," but each one seems to be ruled out by something else.

1 - Sil3512 controller failure. I ruled this out because it works full speed with Linux on the same PC. Also, other cards exhibit the same behavior.
2 - Motherboard failure. I ruled this out because as with above, it works full speed with Linux on the same PC.
3 - Bad Silicon Image Windows drivers. I ruled this out because the same controller and the same drivers work full speed on another PC in Windows.
4 - Windows installation hosed. I ruled this out after a reinstall did not fix the issue.

Anybody have any thoughts on how I can make my drive go full speed in Windows? I'm thinking it's some weird combination of incompatibilities I may never figure out, but I figure it can't hurt to see if anybody has any ideas. It definitely seems to be a software issue of some sort, as the drives have no issues in Linux.

Any input greatly appreciated!

[Wizard]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

Benchmark is dubious unless it has proper methods of measuring performance.

PCI is 33MB/s

Cheers, Wizard

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

No, PCI is 33MHz and 133MB/s.

Windows or your BIOS is probably putting you in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

[yyonline]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

Good suggestion about PIO mode. I don't know that it's the case, however. Drivers report UDMA mode, and CPU usage is low.

The straight line graph suggests that something is limiting the drive speed in Windows. Even the min read speed in Linux is faster than Windows. It hasn't caused any other issues aside from slowness, however.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I tested with XP Home SP3, HDtune, Hitachi 7K1000.C HDs (firmware 39C), SiL3512 (latest non-RAID firmware and driver), Promise 20378, and motherboards equipped with either VIA KT400, Nvidia MCP-61, or Intel G41/ICH7 chipsets. Performance was slow only with the Promise card and Nvidia chipset and on the boot HD, when it was <50MB/s average and varied widely. Otherwise the average was 84-90 MB/s.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

There should be an option for disk cache in device manager, I notice it says enabled in the SIL control panel but make sure it's enabled in device manager for the disk too

I don't expect the issue is this, because I assume you are not using Win2K3/XP x64, but that can have it's own issues as I found out;
http://www.techspot.com/blog/224/slo...rver-2003-x64/

[Wizard]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

My apologies on that figure. I remembered day after that I erred. 133MB/s is correct now I remember. Brain fart.

Try different card with good chipset and known good windows driver support.

Cheers, Wizard

[yyonline]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I've tried Silicon Image, VIA, and Promise. All have different, but similarly bad performance. VIA is a flat line at about 38 MB/s, and the Promise controller is a flat line at about 14 MB/s.

All of these work full-speed in Linux on the same PC.

Does anybody have a suggestion for a PCI SATA card that has good Windows driver support, but will still work with Linux-based disk wiping software and Norton Ghost?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I don't think it's drivers per se.
http://winhlp.com/node/10

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

Does anybody have a suggestion for a PCI SATA card that has good Windows driver support, but will still work with Linux-based disk wiping software and Norton Ghost?

The only other PCI SATA controller chips I've heard of are HighPoint, Initio (INIC-1620, 1622, 1623xx?), and maybe ITE.

Is it possible the SATA cards are slow because they're sharing an interrupt with something else?

[ratdude747]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

maybe the hard drive itself?

[yyonline]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

It does it with multiple drives, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi... So I think this rules out a bad hard drive.

I don't think it's in PIO mode. The speed might suggest that, but the CPU usage does not. I usually see 90+% CPU usage during heavy disk activity if a drive is in PIO mode. I don't see that here, just slowness. Additionally, there are no options to set the PIO/DMA mode in Windows. That's all handled by the card's bios as it's running in AHCI mode.

Hmm, all the Highpoint controllers are a bit pricey. I can't find any of the others on newegg. So, I just ordered a Initio controller from eBay. I probably don't want to spend too much money on this.

It works fine as it is now, just slower than ideal. All I use that PC for is backing up customer's PCs and wiping disks before trashing them. It would be nice to have the extra speed, but it's not holding me back much.

[stj]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

i was thinking that, 4k sectors?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

How are you connecting the customers drives?
... Sure it's not a slow USB adapter problem?

[bgavin]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I use the IP35 board, not the "-E" suffix, so not sure of what that means.

Q: does this board not have onboard SATA for some reason?

Mine has 6 connectors, and runs full tilt.
Sad, but no more BIOS from ABit. They have died.

[stj]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

try a new cable - sata is single-strand and they break easy.

[yyonline]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I plug the drives straight in with a SATA cable to the PCI card. No USB involved.

The motherboard does have onboard SATA, 4 ports, but they only run in IDE mode, ACHI is not available with the IP35-E. So, no hot swap capability. Older linux (which is used by a lot of bootable disk utilities) and Norton Ghost haven't a clue what to make of it. Also, I have 3 of 4 ports used by various drives. Thus, the PCI controller.

It does this with multiple SATA cables.

[severach]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I like my Rosewill RC-216 with the JMicron JMB363. The only fault I've found is that the JMicron BIOS adds too many retries so it can't be used to recover drives with bad sectors in places that drive the OS crazy. Performance is good and the bootable disk images are compatible with Intel controllers.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

Any drive hooked up to the Silicon Image card will not go any faster than 28 MB/s under Windows.

Like it's 2001. lol

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

I don't think it's in PIO mode.

It don't look like it's in PIO mode, because PIO mode is 4 MB/s or 5 MB/s.

PIO mode makes even 28 MB/s look like a speed king!