Comments on: Fix a suddenly very slow SATA hard drive problem

By: Faming

Faming — Tue, 17 May 2011 01:53:51 +0000

THERE IS A LASTING* SOLUTION AFTER ALL!! You will find it here: http://winhlp.com/node/10.
To put this extensive article simple:
1) click “Start”, “Run…”; type “regedit”; click “OK”
2) browse to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}”
3) click on the “0001″ subkey in the tree directly under it
4) delete the entries “MasterIdDataCheckSum” and “SlaveIdDataCheckSum”
5) click on the “0002″ subkey in the tree directly under “0001″
4) delete the entries “MasterIdDataCheckSum” and “SlaveIdDataCheckSum”
NOTE: not all of these entries need be present, just delete the ones that are
5) reboot

The drives should perform back at full speed again.
Look at the site above for all explanatory details. In short: data transfer has been permanently set to (slow) PIO, above method forces it back to (speedy) Ultra DMA.
*Be aware that PIO has been set with a reason (bad HD, scratchy CD/DVD), so it might happen again.

(Above info originally by Alexander Grigoriev & Hans-Georg Michna)

By: Faming

Faming — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:17:53 +0000

I have an XC-cube with 1 TB Samsung SATA drive and can report the same problem. Sudden drop of 30 Mb/s to 3 Mb/s. Putting the HD from first to second port solved the problem. But then the Instant-On function (quick mp3/video/picture/radio/TV ability without starting any OS) is sacrificed.
After several month again speed has dropped to 3 Mb/s. No more SATA ports, no lasting solution!! I use USB drives now to keep performance.

By: MBit

MBit — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:53:58 +0000

Hello again,
changing the SATA slot did the trick, thanks.
Unfortunately not a very satisfying solution, who knows when it happens again?

greetings, Mbit

By: MBit

MBit — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:04:53 +0000

Hi, I’m having the same problem for some years now with my computer, all of a sudden the speed of SATA drive(s) drop to ~1.5 MB/s (measured by HDTune and HDTach) and everything slows down and sometimes system hangs up.
I ensured HDDs work properly on other Mobos, checked SMART values, everything seemed fine.
Things that solved problem (temporarily):
-Reinstalling XP
-Replacing the SYSTEM registry hive of windows registry (where driver, service and activation settings are stored among other stuff) with the one from C:\Windows\repair
-Booting in safe mode (not a real solution, doesnt solve problem in “normal mode”)
-Replacing the mobo with a different one

Changing the Mobo solved the problem until today (some months since last error).
First, only the primary HDD was affected, the other one stil ran at full speed.
Now, both are slow and the problem even occurs in safe mode.
I really would like to know what is causing my constant problems, which seem to be exactly like yours.
I’ll do some more investigation, however it can only be one of these:
1) Faulty hardware (no onboard HW)
2) Faulty driver for hardware (no onboard HW)
3) Faulty driver for virtual HW, i.e. CDROM emulation
I’ll post any results.
Greetings, mbit