James Barton has has a simple tweak to improve disk performance on Windows machines.

How to Check Current Transfer Mode

  • Open Device Manager
  • Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
  • Double click on Primary IDE Controller or Secondary IDE Controller
  • Go to the Advanced Settings tab to see the current transfer modes. If you see anything besides UltraDMA-6, and especially if you see PIO Mode, then

Go to James’ site and follow his directions. It involves editing the registry which can be tricky. So follow the directions carefully.