take a look at www.maxtor.com
Is there a faq somewhere around here? *chuckle*
Q01: What is Ultra DMA?
A01: Ultra DMA (UDMA) is the latest advancement to the ANSI ATA specifications. For detailed information about the ANSI ATA specifications view them at the T13 Committee site at http://www.t13.org/. ATA-4, among other improvements, supports Ultra DMA modes 0, 1 and 2. UDMA mode 2 supports burst data transfer rates up to 33 MB per second (MB/s). ATA-5, among other improvements, supports Ultra DMA modes 3 and 4. UDMA mode 4 supports burst data transfer rates up to 66 MB/s.
Maxtor drives that support UDMA will have an "D" (supports UDMA mode 2, 33 MB/s data transfer rate) or an "U" (supports UDMA mode 4, 66 MB/s data transfer rate) designator in the drive model number instead of the traditional "A". For example: Model 91728D8 (UDMA/33 MB/s), model 91728U8 (UDMA/66 MB/s).
ATA-5 Extensions Synchronous DMA Mode for Ultra DMA
Mode Cycle Times Transfer Rate (Burst)
01 120 ns 16.6 MB/s
1 80 ns 25 MB/s
2 60 ns 33.3 MB/s
3 45 ns 44.4 MB/s
4 30 ns 66.6 MB/s
1 - Equivalent to PIO mode 4 (ATA-3)
UDMA/33 (ATA-4) doubles and UDMA/66 (ATA-5) quadruples the maximum transfer speed of the ATA-3 interface while maintaining the cycle time of the ATA bus clock at the rate used by PIO Mode 4.
S.M.A.R.T.
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology
What is S.M.A.R.T.?
S.M.A.R.T. is a system that enables the PC to predict the future failure of devices such as disk drives. Armed with a failure prediction, the user or system manager can back up key data, replace a suspect device prior to data loss, or avoid undesired downtime. S.M.A.R.T. is a key component of improving data integrity and data availability of the PC.
-note that it has been known to degrade performance ever so slightly. -hawkeye
Never cut what you can untie. -Joubert (1754-1824)