Can anybody explain this transfer rate to me?

[LiamC]

More info (see above).

I went looking for specifications for this drive (WD300BB). I initially ran tests upon it over a year ago here:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/liamc/q22001/zdrevisitedp3.htm

if you have a look at the transfer rate you'll see that it is 33600KB/s

So I though to myself "the drive has always been broken". So I visited the WD site to check the specs. No dice for the nominal transfer rate, so off to SR I trot and looked up the Winbench tests for the WD 400BB (same drive family, platter density etc.

Start 33600
End 23500

Which is what I'm getting now. So now the drive is operating within spec - except if the file system is NTFS.

 

[LiamC]

Changed nothing except formatting as NTFS and the graph dips at the half-way mark!

 

[blakerwry]

i wonder what the graph would look like using other file systems.... how about unformated? un partitioned?

 

[Bozo]

Did you install Win2K SP-3?

Bozo

 

[LiamC]

2 and 3. Makes no difference

 

[Buck]

Quick question LiamC, what are you using to create the partitions on the drive?

 

[Bozo]

I was just wondering if one of the service packs might have broke and/or fixed the problem.

I built two PCs with VIA chipsets and Intel CPUs and their IDE performace is terible. I went to VIAs site and checked in on their forums. Seems we are not alone.

Bozo

 

[LiamC]

Buck, W2K's FDISK.

 

[Buck]

Buck, W2K's FDISK.

Thanks LiamC, I just wanted to make sure you weren't using third party software, including EZ-Install from WD.