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Slave Drive UltraDMA

Common Options : Auto, Disabled

Quick Review

This BIOS feature allows you to enable or disable DMA (Direct Memory Access) support (if available) for the Slave IDE device attached to that particular IDE channel.

Setting this BIOS feature to Auto lets the BIOS auto-detect the IDE drive's maximum supported DMA mode at boot-up.

Setting this BIOS feature to Disabled forces the BIOS to disable DMA transfers for the IDE drive.

Normally, you should leave it as Auto and let the BIOS auto-detect the drive's DMA support. If the drive supports DMA transfers, the proper DMA transfer mode will be enabled for that drive, allowing it to burst data at anywhere from 33MB/s to 133MB/s (depending on the transfer mode supported).

You should only disable it for troubleshooting purposes. For example, certain IDE devices may not run properly using DMA transfers when the PCI bus is overclocked. Disabling DMA support will force the drive to use the slower PIO transfer mode. This may allow the drive to work properly with the higher PCI bus speed.

Please note that setting this to Auto will not enable DMA transfers for IDE devices that do not support DMA transfers. If your drive does not support DMA transfers, the BIOS will automatically set the drive to do PIO transfers only.

Also note that this BIOS feature merely enables DMA transfers during the booting up process and for operating systems that do not load their own drivers for IDE functions. For operating systems that use their own IDE drivers (i.e. Windows 9x / 2000 / XP), you have to enable DMA support for the drive within the operating system as well.


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