optimize hard drive speed

[ryan_lau100]

is there a way to optimize the speed of the hard drive? i know 3.0Gb/s cannot be utilized in most drives but is there a way to increase the speed? what is the point of loading the interface with that capability if hard drives cannot utilize it?

[board123]

The drive spins at a designed speed. The arm moves at a designed speed. There's nothing you can do to surpass its physical limitations.

[fly]

Only thing I can think of is to make sure your files are not fragmented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragmentation_%28computer%29

Also, ensure DMA (3GB drive may not have this) is enabled in the BIOS.

[ryan_lau100]

so my question remains why make an interface that cannot utilize the speed?

[jvangilst]

SATA II supports 3.0GB/s so that if you have multiple drives, and you're copying multiple files from different drives to different drives, you could reach up to 3GB/s. You will need a bunch of drives to fully utilize this though, however it's not useless.

[board123]

Head room.

IDE drives don't saturate ATA133.
USB drives don't saturate USB2.0
AMD processors don't utilize HyperTransport.
Core 2 Duo has yet to saturate the FSB.

SATA is an official specification. Specifications are designed to last for a long time. The devices that follow these specifications have much shorter lifespans. This is why specifications, at the time of approval, are always way ahead of their time.