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Disk I/O Performance Logging
Windows defaults to continual logging of Input and Output data to your hard drive. Disabling this will free up some resources. To disable performance logging, go to the Start menu and select Run. Type in “diskperf –n” (minus the quotes) and hit Okay.
Write Behind Caching
Windows defaults to write-behind caching, holding data in a memory buffer before writing it to disk. Disabling this function will increase your system performance by writing data immediately to disk. To disable this function, right click on My Computer and choose Properties, or open Control Panel and select System. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. Click the “plus” sign next to Disk Drives and select a drive. Choose Properties and uncheck “Write Cache Enabled”. Repeat for all drives in your system.
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UDMA/ATA Mode for Hard Drives
As with earlier versions of Windows, running Ultra DMA mode will considerably increase the speed at which your system writes to and reads from the hard disk. With the current UDMA66 and UDMA100 protocols it’s possible to reach throughput levels equal to that of wide SCSI drives, resulting in greatly increased track count and system efficiency.
Windows 2000 and XP can recognize a DMA capable device, and will detect and activate DMA mode by default whenever one is connected. Most drives manufactured in the last few years support DMA, and most modern motherboards’ chipsets detect this. You can check or change your settings by opening Device Manager (right-click on My Computer, select “Properties”, then select the “Hardware” tab and click “Device Manager”. Expand the list by clicking on the plus sign next to “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers” and right-click on “Primary Controller”. Select “Properties”, then go to the “Advanced Settings” tab. Transfer mode should be set to “DMA if available” (not PIO) and Device Type to “Auto Detection”. Repeat for “Secondary Controller”.
A small few motherboards, especially some VIA chipsets, do not always auto-detect DMA. If you so not see options for the above settings, you may need to update the motherboard’s BIOS or install specific drivers. Check the motherboard manufacturer’s website for info and downloads.
Also remember to make sure your DMA drives are connected with 80-wire ATA ribbon cables, rather than the older 40-wire ones. Newer UDMA66 and UDMA100 drives require them but even older UDMA33 drives, which only need 40-wire cables to operate, benefit from the increased shielding the unused wires provide.
Separate Drives – How and Where
No doc on optimization would be complete without mentioning the value of separate drives for applications and audio. Dave’s [Casey, see above] article covered most of the aspects of SCSI drives, and while SCSI still has clear advantages in using multiple drives, UDMA drives are now rivaling them in throughput and performance; that and a much lower price point have helped find their way into more and more audio setups.
Probably the single most important thing you can do for your system to increase performance and track count is to dedicate a separate physical hard disk to audio exclusively. It is simply not enough to create a separate audio partition on the same drive. In fact, this is actually a bad idea – this makes the drive’s stylus work even harder, since it’s simultaneously seeking application data in one partition and streaming audio from another. A dedicated audio drive frees up both drives to separately access the program data and the audio data.
If your motherboard has only two IDE connectors, you would normally connect the system drive to the primary IDE and the audio drive to the secondary IDE. Set each drive’s jumpers to be the master. Configure the CD-ROM or CD-RW as the slave, and make sure to connect it to the same IDE buss as the system drive. This insures an uninterrupted data flow to and from your more critical audio drive.
If your motherboard has a separate ATA controller and two extra connectors for UDMA master/slave, your setup is that much more simplified, as well as allowing for more physical drives.
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