S.M.A.R.T and 32 bit data transfer

[RAA]

Hi, these two options are on both my SATA drives and seem to be disabled. What do you recommend I set them to?

 

[RAA]

By default they are disabled, perhaps better left that way?

 

[redduc900]

My recommendation is to set both 'S.M.A.R.T' and '32 bit data transfer' BIOS options to 'Enabled' on both HDD's.

 

[bing]

Try high level benchmark like PCMark05 to see the differences and pick the best one especially on the "32 bit data transfer" !

 

[RAA]

It hasn't made a difference at all to my HD Tach results. S.M.A.R.T is a safety feature to warn me about an imminent drive failure so I'll keep it enabled. But is it better to have 32 Bit transfers enabled or disabled do you think?

 

[JigPu]

The BIOS Optimization Gude should have the answer you're looking for

32-bit Disk Access

Options : Enabled, Disabled

32-bit Disk Access is a misnomer because it doesn't really allow 32-bit access to the hard disk. What it actually does is set the IDE controller to combine two 16-bit reads from the hard disk into a single 32-bit double word transfer to the processor. This makes more efficient use of the PCI bus as fewer transactions are needed for the transfer of a particular amount of data.

However, according to a Microsoft article about Enhanced IDE operation under WinNT 4.0, 32-bit disk access can cause data corruption under WinNT in some cases. Microsoft recommends that WinNT 4.0 users disable 32-bit Disk Access.

On the other hand, Lord Mike asked someone in the know and he was told that the data corruption issue was taken very seriously at Microsoft and that it had been corrected through Service Pack 2. Although he couldn't get an official statement from Microsoft, it's probably safe enough to enable IDE HDD Block Mode if you are running WinNT, just as long as you upgrade to Service Pack 2.

If disabled, data transfers from the IDE controller to the processor will then occur only in 16-bits. This degrades performance, of course, so you should enable it if possible. Disable it only if you face the possibility of data corruption.

You can also find more information on the WinNT issue above in our Speed Demonz' guide on IDE Block Mode!

Assuming you are running something newer than NT, it sounds like a good thing to enable

JigPu

 

[Mycobacteria]

I hear that enabling SMART can slow the HD down a little because SMART is constantly checking the status of the HD. Is this correct?

 

[RAA]

I read that it only checks the disk before booting into an OS to prevent the OS becoming corrupted. No idea what happens when it kicks in but I think it's meant to give you the chance to load another disk and then save data from the potentially corrupted disc.