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Disk to disk copying with overclocked memory



 
 
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Old March 11th 04, 02:07 AM
JT
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Default Disk to disk copying with overclocked memory

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 00:40:47 GMT, Mark M
wrote:

I use a partition copier which boots off a floppy disk before any
other OS is launched.

If I copy a partition from one hard drive to another, then is there
any risk of data corruption if the BIOS has been changed to
aggressively speed up the memory settings?

For example the BIOS might set the memory to CAS=2 rather than
CAS=3. Or other memory timing intervals might also be set to be
shorter than is normal.

I am thinking that maybe the IDE cable and drive controllers handle
data fairly independently of the memory on the motherboard. So
maybe data just flows up and down the IDE cable and maybe the
motherboard is not involved except for sync pulses.

There are three scenarios I am thinking about:

(1) Copying a partition from one hard drive on one IDE cable to
another hard drive on a different IDE cable.

(2) Copying a partition from one hard drive to another which is on
the same IDE cable.

(3) Copying one partition to another on the same hard drive.

How much effect would "over-set" memory have on these situations?

Do the answers to any of the above three scenarios change if the
copying of large amounts of data files is done from within WinXP?
Personally, I would guess that it is more likely that motherboard
memory comes into play if Windows is involved.


1. All copies go through memory using at least a block sized buffer of ram.
Buffers at least large enough to hold an entire track will be used,
probably larger for more effeciency. Data is always copied from a drive to
a memory buffer first. Might be directly, using DMA (the M is memory), but
it will be to and from memory. What part of memory is used will vary
depending on the program and whether you are running it under windows, but
a single bit error in the wrong place in memory can be a major problem.

2. If your memory timing is aggressive enough that errors are likely, then
there are a number of things that could go wrong. There could be an error
in the data that gets copied. You could also have the wrong disk address
stored in ram so the data goes to the wrong place. Could be the wrong
instruction so the program crashes. Could be any one of hundreds of
possible single bit failures that might go unnoticed. ECC would help here
(would catch most possible memory errors). If you want reliability in
anything (not just copying disks) then don't push your memory (or other
components) to the edge.

JT
 




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