Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
properties sheet for the controller to view its capabilities.
To enable DMA transfers if your motherboard and drives support it, open the Device Manager and
then open the properties sheet for the controller or drive. Click the Settings or Advanced Settings tab,
and make sure DMA is enabled if available. Depending on which version of Windows you are using,
some have the DMA setting in the controller properties and others have it with the individual drives.
Repeat the same steps to enable DMA transfers for any additional hard drives and ATAPI CD-ROM
drives in your computer. Restart your computer after making these changes.
Note
If your system hangs after you enable this feature, you must restart the system in Safe mode and
uncheck the DMA box.
If your drive is a parallel ATA model that supports any of the Ultra-DMA (also called Ultra-ATA)
modes, you need to use an 80-conductor cable. Most motherboards refuse to enable Ultra-DMA
modes faster than 33MBps if an 80-conductor cable is not detected. Note that these cabling issues
affect only parallel ATA drives. If your drives are Serial ATA (SATA) models, these cabling issues
do not apply.
Depending on your Windows version and when your motherboard chipset was made, you must install
chipset drivers to enable Windows to properly recognize the chipset and enable DMA modes.
Virtually all motherboard chipsets produced since 1995 provide busmaster ATA support. Most of
those produced since 1997 also provide UltraDMA support for up to 33MHz (Ultra-ATA/33) or
66MHz (Ultra-ATA/66) speed operation. Still, you should make sure that DMA is enabled to ensure
you are benefiting from the performance it offers. Enabling DMA can dramatically improve DVD
performance, for example.
Interface
The drive's interface is the physical connection of the drive to the PC's expansion bus. The interface
is the data pipeline from the drive to the computer, and you shouldn't minimize its importance. Four
types of interfaces are normally used for attaching an optical drive to your system:
•
SATA (Serial ATA)
—The SATA interface is the same interface used by most recent
computers for connecting their hard disk drives. With many recent systems featuring support for
as little as one PATA (Parallel ATA) drive, but support for eight or more SATA drives, most
optical drive vendors are now producing SATA versions of their drives.
Compared to similar PATA optical drives, SATA drives feature equal performance but are
easier to install because it is not necessary to jumper the drive for master/slave or cable select.
•
PATA (Parallel AT Attachment)
—The PATA interface is the same interface most older
computers use to connect to their hard disk drives. PATA is sometimes also referred to as ATA
(AT Attachment) or IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics).
•
USB port
—Universal serial bus (USB) is normally used for external drives and provides
benefits such as hot-swappability, which is the capability to be plugged in or unplugged without
removing the power or rebooting the system. USB 2.0 is the most common, but most recent
systems also include two or more USB 3.0 ports, and USB 3.0 optical drives are now available
from many vendors.
