What is IO_support for a harddrive? [solved]

[veggie2u]

I did an hdparm on two drives, one hooked up to the motherboard drive controller (hdc) shows IO_support = 1 (32-bit), but the one connected to an IDE card (hde)(silicon image card) shows IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit).

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# hdparm /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 59554/16/63, sectors = 30735581184, start = 0

# hdparm /dev/hde

/dev/hde:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 24792/255/63, sectors = 203928109056, start = 0

Anyone know what it is? I am assuming that I want 32 bit.

I am not sure how related it is, or which may be causing the other, but I also get this error repeated over and over in dmesg on startup:

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hde: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hde: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown

[NeddySeagoon]

veggie2u,

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IO_support   =  1 (32-bit) 

referrs to the width of the data path between the IDE controller and main memory.
It halves the number of memory cycles required to move data from the IDE controller to memory. The performance improvement due to this is almost too small to measure except when you are short on memory bandwith. The data transfer from the drive to the IDE controller is always 16 bit.

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hde: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hde: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC } 

indicates a failed data transfer. CRC errors are generally bad news. It may be a failing IDE cable, a failing interface on the IDE the card or even a failing drive. If you use hdparm to tune the drive settings, you may have got the settings wrong.

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emerge smartmontools 

and read the drives internal error log

[veggie2u]

Ok, I will leave the IO_support alone.

I was just using hdparm to try to see if DMA was on for the drive.

I have just emerged smartmontools, and will go see how to use it.

Thanks