F-d Up P5WD2p/830 problem...

I am running stock right now...to diagnose the issue.

Memory is PQI 2GB DDR666 and I memtested at both OCed 3.75 and stock speeds (ram is stock speeds). 24hr no errors.

XP Pro-SP2. All seemed well. I installed my C and D drive on the primary ITE8211 port 1. During diskeeper defrag (auto) which was running SUPER SLOW on drive D, I got the message "windows delayed write failed. The file D:/*mft. could not be written and the data was lost."

I thought this might be because perhaps a defrag was happening when I changed the D drives letter to D from F (DVD drives claimed D and E). This has never been a problem but I suspected maybe a defrag was happening and I screwed up.

So I instaleld D into another PC (the old tried and true 3.4) and defragged it there and ran checkdisk. All seemed well. I put it back into the P5WD2 machine and auto defrag came around again...also SUPER SLOW. The drive light was blinking for a half second ever other second (unlike the normally constant red light). So I opened diskeeper to see if progress was happening...slow, but yes although unusual compared to my old PC. ...then, again I got the delayed write failed message...same file D:/*mft.

I did a thorough test of the drive, actually hoping the answer was a drive failure, but it check out...even at the thorough 3 hour sector test from Maxtor tools.

Now I am worried. What could this be? I need this PC to be 100% as it is my work computer. I am afraid to install my drive back into this PC. I got another round IDE cable, in case that was the problem, but there is really no way to test a cable. Either way, the cable was new.

Any ideas? I am in that freaky, heart racing panic place I know many of you know all too well!

Thanks!

Category 5 said:

I am running stock right now...to diagnose the issue.

Memory is PQI 2GB DDR666 and I memtested at both OCed 3.75 and stock speeds (ram is stock speeds). 24hr no errors.

XP Pro-SP2. All seemed well. I installed my C and D drive on the primary ITE8211 port 1. During diskeeper defrag (auto) which was running SUPER SLOW on drive D, I got the message "windows delayed write failed. The file D:/*mft. could not be written and the data was lost."

I thought this might be because perhaps a defrag was happening when I changed the D drives letter to D from F (DVD drives claimed D and E). This has never been a problem but I suspected maybe a defrag was happening and I screwed up.

So I instaleld D into another PC (the old tried and true 3.4) and defragged it there and ran checkdisk. All seemed well. I put it back into the P5WD2 machine and auto defrag came around again...also SUPER SLOW. The drive light was blinking for a half second ever other second (unlike the normally constant red light). So I opened diskeeper to see if progress was happening...slow, but yes although unusual compared to my old PC. ...then, again I got the delayed write failed message...same file D:/*mft.

I did a thorough test of the drive, actually hoping the answer was a drive failure, but it check out...even at the thorough 3 hour sector test from Maxtor tools.

Now I am worried. What could this be? I need this PC to be 100% as it is my work computer. I am afraid to install my drive back into this PC. I got another round IDE cable, in case that was the problem, but there is really no way to test a cable. Either way, the cable was new.

Any ideas? I am in that freaky, heart racing panic place I know many of you know all too w
Thanks!

Click to expand...

If the drive is defragged, then why bother defraggin it again? Maybe try using the windows defrag, perhaps diskkeeper is conflicting with the ITE controller. Another thing that comes to mind is make sure you have PATA set as Native in the bios. Something might not be configured correctly in the BIOS. Also you could try updating the bios to 606.

Why not just buy a SATA drive.....At any rate how does the drive perform, run HD Tach to see bandwith.

Yeah, for many reasons if at all possible I'd recommend going SATA and completely disabling the ITE (and Sil) controller.

Not that SATA is faster - but just that the intel ICH7 is a way better controller then either the ITE or Sil.

You can pick up PATA<->SATA converters pretty cheap if you don't want to replace the drive(s).

[offtopic]
I just built up an audio workstation for a friend We used a P5WD2-E because of the better PCI slot layout. i920 (conservatively o/ced to 250FSB/3.5ghz), 4GB PC2-5400, ATi X800GT (dual DVI), two UAD-1 cards, and an RME DSP AES-32. For his drives we went with a 74G Raptor for OS/apps, and two 250GB WD SE16 drives for samples and data. Zalman cooling on video card and CPU for silence. All packed into an Antec 4U case, to fit into his rack.
[/offtopic]

Where is the option to set PATA as native? ...and what does it do?

I would love to go SATA, but I don't just use a single drive. I have several drives that swap in and out through removable bays, so going SATA would mean replacing the bays and ALL the drives. too expensive right now, but that it inevitable.

Bios is 0606. Diskeeper should work. I upgraded from version 9 to 10. Also, I can't say that the error is limited to diskeeper (which Windows defrag is based on BTW).

I am in a simular situation. I simply use a PATA-to-SATA adaptor on the back of my PATA Drive Bay (mounted in the front 5.25" bay), and I can still use ALL of my PATA Caddies (I have like 6 of them). The one thing I have to do is put a simple SPST switch on the adaptor's +5V feed if you need to boot w/o a HD in the Drive Bay (or the PC will hang). My removeable PATA HD's are strictly for B/U, so I usually leave the removeable HD and the SATA Adaptor "off" unless I am backing up. Speed/Bandwidth has not suffered at all...

You can do the SAMETHING with a PATA-to-Firewire Adaptor - as I do on PC#2 in my sig (interfaced via the internal MoBo FW port). The FW Adaptor does slow down the transfers slightly, so I'd reccomend going PATA-to-SATA if possible...

Works like a charm in 2 of my PC's

No room for any adapters in my case...plus, that is a poor solution.

The drive works fine if I make it a master on the secondary port. It seems the masters work fine, but slaves don't work. I confirmed my othere P5WD2P has the same issue in my DAW system. I tried the latest ITE drivers but there is something else going on here.

The problem is also not limited to diskeeper either, that is just a quick way to check for it. It also happens in cubase when I play an arrangement from the slave. The disk stops and so does the music...then cuts back in...and again...

It is like the disk access is on a strobe timer or something.

Anyone know anything else about this ITE8211 controller?

Odd indeed. I know I never liked using the PATA port on my older P4C800-E Dlx's Promise Controller.

FWIW - The PATA-to-SATA bridge boards I mentioned are not like a PATA-to-Firewire bridgeboard where the HD data is converted into "Packets". I have noticed a substantial improvement from my PATA HD Caddy interfaced via Firewire (in PC#2) to the same PATA drives interfaced via SATA (in PC#1). The FW conversion does indeed use overhead, where as the SATA is practically a straight pass-thru. No speed detriments that I can see, and hot-swap of SATA is nice (I never trust hot-swapping PATA drives - the interface was just not designed for it). I simply flip the +5V switch for the Caddy's SATA converter, and pull the drive out "Hot Swap" w/o shutting down. FWIW - The 36Gig Raptor essentially uses a PATA-to-SATA Bridge Board internally (it is basically a PATA HD), and that is an "Enterprise Class" SATA HD. So these PATA-to-SATA bridge boards really are reliable IMO.

I just added a second RAID-0 array on the ICH7R, so I had to move the removeable PATA Caddy to the Silicon Image SATA controller (the ICH7R is all filled up now). Still works flawlessly with the PATA-to-SATA bridgeboard. Even with Nuendo and Wavelab. I usually record to a removeable HD in PC#2 (in our Jam Room), and simply pull it out, and pop it into PC#1 at home for mixdown. No copying needed, and no cables to plug/unplug. The Bridgeboard takes up like less than 1" of depth, and is really very small (plugs directly into the PATA Caddy Bay, and the SATA cable plugs directly into it). ou can buy 90* SATA Cables if space is that tight (My caddy bays are rather large and deep, and I have a OCZ520SLI deep power supply, and I still had enough room for these adaptors in a Mid-ATX case)

If you can't get your ITE controller working, I'd seriously suggest doing it this way. Not a single hang-up with this methood, and you get the hot-swap (or the "Safe Hot Swap") features of SATA as a bonus. I have copied over 500Gigs of back-up data over the past 3 days using this methood. Solid and as fast as native PATA...

OT: Don't you love Steinberg as a DAW? Steinberg Software and RME hardware - a match made in heaven!!! . That and some PSP and Waves plug-ins does it for me.