System Specs:
AMD 64 x2 6000+
Abit AN9
4GB RAM
GeForce 8800GT SLI
250GB WD SATA HDD
Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1
Forceware version 15.01
version 177.79 gfx drivers

not sure what else would be helpful for hardware/drivers


Ive been having some serious performance issues with hard drive xfer speed and performance, but I am not sure if I can narrow it down specifically to the HDD. The primary time where I get bad performance is when downloading files. It all started when I first installed vista and was downloading all of the updates and SP1. After a brutal night of waiting around for the files to download and install (I'm talking hours), performance did a huge jump, but was still sub par from before I reinstalled. Currently when downloading files from EA store, bittorrent, or any large file, say Vista SP1, my computer slows down to a halt. I defrag weekly, used an external defrag program for >64MB files. I used the tutorial to increase SATA drive performance, tried a few other tweaks on the tutorial forums, but nothing seems to work. It seems to be much worse when I try to unzip/unrar or otherwise process large amounts on my HDD. Ive done virus scans, spyware scans, used system optimizers, but I think im missing something.

If anyone has any idea, your help would be much appreciated.

Blitz, try this software out for diagnosing HDD problems:

HD Tune

The software will allow you to run several low-level tests on your drive including benchmarks and error scans, and also allows you to monitor the temperature. You can compare your results to what is standard for your drive.

It will also give you S.M.A.R.T. data, if your drive supports it.

Hopefully this will get you closer to your solution...

i found a work around and im not sure how it got messed up in the first place, but...

in device manager, i went to my sata controller, went to verify that dma mode was selected and decided to uncheck the block that says let the bios decide. works like a champ now