Best way to increase Hard Drive efficiency?

[TEMPS]

I have configured my system as well as I know how. The hard drives are working on separate IDE cables both in dma mode. I have disabled the write behind caching and tweaked my sound card settings as well as my settings in gigastudio. I am so close to getting flawless sound from this system but I still get \"stuttering\" notes from time to time and every once in a while a pop or two. From the progress I\'ve made I think this is a hard drive issue. I have two 40 gig hard drives 7200 and 512sdram using a midiman audiophile 2496, windows XP and the Steinway B from Eastwest. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

John

[Doug Marshall]

I haven\'t switched to XP yet. Is vcache still around? If so, you might increase the size of it. Sorry I\'m not familiar with XP but this basically solved my problems in 98/ME.

[Jamieh]

Don\'t play with VCache settings on XP or 2000. That is a Win 95/98/Me thing only.

[Doug Marshall]

Thanks for the advice, Jamieh! - Doug

[Vertigo50]

It may not be a hard drive issue. Have you tried increasing the DMA buffer size on the Audiophile card?

You can do this by going to Control Panel - M Audio Delta, and then to the Hardware Settings tab. Bump the buffer up to 512 or even higher and see if you have the same issue. You might have to restart for it to take effect, but I\'m not sure.

Also, make sure you have the newest version of Gigastudio. That made all the difference when I was having major problems with it.

You have probably tried all of these things, and I don\'t mean to be insulting if you have. I\'m just trying to help.