SATA tweak - Improve your performance

[Joe_Lorenzini]

For the tech heads... got this tidbit on TechRepublic today and thought I would share. I've done it (Windows 7) and have seen an improvement:

Overview: SATA drives are still being looked at by Windows as an IDE drive which in some cases can hinder their performance.

Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS if you're not comfortable modifying and understanding your Registry and your computers BIOS!!

Here goes:
1. Using regedit, find the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\msahci

1a. Back up the existing key before modifying.

2. Look for the "Start" key and modify the value FROM: 3 TO: 0 (Change the value to zero). Close regedit.

2a: Restart your computer and enter into the BIOS

3. BIOS: Go into your computers BIOS and look for SATA controls (they vary all over the place). You want to change the value FROM: IDE TO: AHCI

My SATA controls were on the first page of my BIOS at the bottom. Not sure where yours will be but AHCI will be a choice if you are able to modify it.

Again - PLEASE be sure you understand what you are doing and what could happen!!! Some do not see any improvement, I did for mine. I have six SATA drives and they are more "snappy" when I access them. Not sure on transfer times as I didn't do any benchmarking.

This is the link on TechRepublic but you may have to sign up to be able to view it...
Quick Tip: Improve your SATA disk performance by converting from IDE to AHCI, from Jack Wallen - Downloads - TechRepublic

Good luck!

Joe

[Rson]

I personally think this is great for the older and mass produced computers....but the ones that I have and built and the others who have built, I don't even think they have an IDE port. :)

[Joe_Lorenzini]

True but Microsoft is still configuring Windows to treat SATA drives like IDE although I personally haven't taken the time to figure out the difference between a 3 and a 0 in the reg tweak...

[Rson]

Prob latancy times

[mdurisseau]

Think that key could/should be created if it doesn't exist?

[Rson]

Originally Posted by mdurisseau

Think that key could/should be created if it doesn't exist?

If you have to ask, don't do it.

[mdurisseau]

You know, I don't mind creating the key...it just didn't exist in my registry...thanks for the advice, but I, like you, have been doing this a while...20+ years in my case...thanks for the pointer, though!

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Originally Posted by Rson

Prob latancy times

Probably right on. Makes sense given the type of change I'm seeing.

[srwatters]

My system doesn't have this thing called regedit? What is it?

[Kalrog]

Originally Posted by srwatters

My system doesn't have this thing called regedit? What is it?

Mine either, but you gotta remember what the masses are used to.

[mdurisseau]

Scott...sure it does! Click on Start (depending on your OS...I have no experience with Vista or Win 7), then find 'Run', then type 'regedt32' or 'regedit'...minus the quotes, of course...it is possible that some of the home versions don't have it...let me know. I might be able to help...

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by mdurisseau

Scott...sure it does! Click on Start (depending on your OS...I have no experience with Vista or Win 7), then find 'Run', then type 'regedt32' or 'regedit'...minus the quotes, of course...it is possible that some of the home versions don't have it...let me know. I might be able to help...

See my signature... And the smiley faces...

I was just giving Joe "the business". And for the record, I do have a Windows box on my desk at work. Although it's running Vmware 7.1 on Win 7 64 bit so I can have both Windows and Linux running at the same time. I much prefer native compilers for the embedded Linux software we write...

And thanks for the offer of help. We can always count on TPF members for support!

[mdurisseau]

LOL...with the 'Apple' on your sig, I might have guessed...I run two Apple boxes (a Macbook and a G4, and the Macbook has Windows XP), and three Windows XP machines, a home-built, a ThinkPad T450 and a netbook...thanks for not making me feel like an idiot for offering to help!

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Well, turns out there are side-effects from this registry tweak, at least for my system...

Although it's not consistent, sometimes when the computer comes out of sleep mode it loses the ability to see certain drives (never my system drive C: though). I've tried multiple ways to re-recognize the drives and there's never any data loss or corruption involved, it's just that Windows decides certain drives don't exist. A simple restart fixes the issue.

So I'm going back to the way it was before. The results were good but the side-effects too much.

Joe