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What is Ultra
ATA/100?
Ultra
ATA/100 is the latest generation of the ATA interface. ATA,
also known as IDE, is the most common interface for desktop
and workstation computers. As ATA disc drives have become
faster internally, the need has arisen for faster interface or
external "burst" transfer rates. Recent examples of
this include Ultra ATA/33, UltraATA/66, and now Ultra ATA/100.
The numeric portion of these interfaces denotes the maximum
burst transfer rate of the interface in Megabytes per second.
How is Ultra
ATA/100 different from Ultra ATA/33 or Ultra ATA/66?
The most
significant difference is the increase in transfer rate. There
are also some enhancements to error checking with Ultra
ATA/100. In addition, these new drives include an enhanced
command set to ensure compatibility with future interface
additions.
Why Ultra ATA/100
when Ultra ATA/66 is so new?
The internal
sustained data rates for drives in the ATA realm have been
increasing at a rapid pace in the last 18 months due to new
read/write technologies. Because of this, the ATA interface
has seen the need for a faster transfer rate to accommodate
drives that may soon surpass 66 MB/sec sustained transfer
rates. In general, the burst rates of the ATA interfaces stay
a generation ahead of the actual sustained rates to simplify
introduction of newer, faster drives.
What is required
to run in Ultra ATA/100 Mode?
Similar to
Ultra ATA/66, there are basically four requirements:
- An
Ultra ATA/100-capable system board and BIOS. (Ultra
ATA/100 expansion cards are also available.)
- An
Ultra ATA-capable 40 pin, 80 conductor cable.
- An
operating system capable of DMA transfers, such as Windows
95 (OSR2), 98, and Windows Millennium Edition.
- An
Ultra ATA/100-capable device.
How do I know if
my system can support the new Ultra ATA/100 products?
Please
check with your preferred motherboard manufacturer or system
manufacturer for Ultra ATA/100 support information.
Where can I get
the Seagate Ultra ATA/100 toggle utility?
The utility
(UATA100d.exe)
can be downloaded from our Drivers and
Utilities page. The file is a
self-extracting Zip archive that must be unzipped and placed
on a bootable diskette. This version of the utility can be
used with all Ultra ATA/33, Ultra ATA/66, and Ultra ATA/100
capable Seagate ATA hard drives.
How can I run
the Ultra ATA toggle utility using Windows Millennium (WinMe)?
Because
WinMe does not offer a way to Restart in MS-DOS Mode, you can
use a WinMe Startup Disk to boot the system to the A:\>
Prompt. A WinMe Startup Disk can be made using Control
Panel-Add/Remove Programs-Startup Disk Tab-Create Disk. After
downloading and expanding the toggle utility (UATA100d.exe),
copy UATA100.exe and UATA100.txt onto the WinMe Startup Disk.
Boot to the WinMe Startup Disk and type UATA100 <enter>
at the A:\> prompt to configure the drive.
Are the Ultra
ATA/33, Ultra ATA/66 and Ultra ATA/100 interfaces backward
compatible?
All Seagate
Ultra ATA/100 drives are backward compatible with Ultra
ATA/33, Ultra ATA/66, and legacy ATA interfaces. However, due
to the inability of some ATA host controllers and motherboards
to properly interface with Ultra ATA drives, Seagate suggests
using the "toggle" utility to set the Ultra ATA/100
drives to Ultra ATA/33 or Ultra ATA/66 mode for better
compatibility with a non-ATA/100 host controller or
motherboard.
Will performance
be affected if I have to set an Ultra ATA/100 disc drive to a
slower speed in order to maintain compatibility with my
system?
Changing
the transfer mode affects only the external transfer rate of
the device. If an Ultra ATA/100 device is configured for a
slower transfer mode, its maximum speed will of course be
limited to the maximum burst transfer rate of that mode.
However, the internal performance is not affected by the
external transfer mode, therefore the sustained transfer rate
will not be as drastically affected as the maximum (burst)
transfer rate.
Is there a command line mode in
the Ultra ATA/100 utility that can be used to configure a
batch of drives?
Yes. The latest version includes a command line mode,
UATA100 [option], where [option] can be one of the following:
- -m <#>
Set the maximum Ultra DMA mode to # for each configurable
device found.
- -d
Set the maximum Ultra DMA mode to the device maximum for
each configurable device found.
If no command line options are given, user interactive mode
will start.
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